The last and the greatest of Douglas' piston-engined transports, the Skymaster family, followed the success of the DC-3. In 1936 Douglas started work on a revolutionary transcontinental passenger plane. With twice the capacity of the DC-3, a range of 2,000 miles, and many luxuries & innovations, the DC-4 was inten-ded to change the face of pas-senger transport. Skymaster proved popular w/military and civil customers, and Roosevelt and Churchill both traveled in their personal Skymasters. The Skymaster family was the pinnacle of propeller-driven airliner technology.