Question about the old DC-3 and its original engine life

Elliot Miller · 2026-03-10T14:25:05.033434+00:00

I was reading a book on early airline maintenance and found out the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines on the DC-3 were only expected to run for about 600 hours before a major overhaul. Found that in a footnote in a library book from 1998. It's wild to think about pulling engines that often compared to what we do now. What's the shortest overhaul interval you've ever seen on a type you've worked on?

john_dixon616mo ago

Wow, that's a crazy short lifespan.

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kellyperry6mo ago

Actually, that 600 hour number makes sense when you think about the tech back then. Those early radials were basically being figured out as they flew. John_dixon61 is right it seems short now, but it was a huge step up from what came before. Overhaul times grew fast as they learned more about the metal and the oil. Comparing it to modern engines misses how big a deal that reliability was at the time. It let airlines actually plan a schedule.

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jakewhite5mo ago

Man, 600 hours. Makes you wonder what the failure rate was like before they even got to that point, doesn't it?

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