The lifespan of Douglas’ last major piston engine-powered transport was cut short by the advent of the jet age.

One airplane aloft that morning was a sleek, four-engined DC-7B, newly completed at the Douglas plant in Santa Monica and destined for delivery to Continental Air Lines. The $2,000,000 airliner ...

In Los Angeles one day last November, an attorney read down a list of 42 victims of a National Airlines DC-7B crash in the Gulf of Mexico and spotted the name of a client. It was Robert Vernon ...