Canadair North Star

what is it?

The Canadair North Star is a 1940s Canadian development, for Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA), of the Douglas DC-4. Instead of radial piston engines used by the Douglas design, Canadair used Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engines to achieve a higher cruising speed of 325 mph (523 km/h) compared with the 246 mph (396 km/h) of the standard DC-4. Requested by TCA in 1944, the prototype flew on 15 July 1946.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 piston engines with propellers · 35.8 m wingspan

base stats

• seats 55passengers
• size 37.3 tmax take-off weight
• built 71made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 80 years ago, in 1946.
• 🚗Wingspan of 35.8 m: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 6 African elephants (~6 t each).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1946-07-15

introduced

1946

retired

1975

status

retired

number built

71

role

passenger and cargo transport

origin

🇨🇦 Canada

makers

Canadair

engines

4× Rolls-Royce Merlin 626

crew

7

passengers

55

length

28.5 m

wingspan

35.8 m

height

8.4 m

max take-off weight

37.3 t

top speed

—

range

—

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family