I'm kinda new here, so would like to start out with a what if kinda question.
What post-war airliner did Douglas Aircraft, the creator of the DC3, propose for the post-war market? It was based upon an experimental bomber. I'd like to discuss this, because it might make for a rather interesting model conversion.

That would be the first DC-9 concept, based on the XB-42 layout but with a low wing which placed the fuselage fairly close to the ground.

Oops, I got the number wrong which was why I couldn't find the pages I remembered finding before. It was a DC-8 concept, not a DC-9.

Actually, it was to be called the DC8. I first saw a pic of it in either Wings or Airpower(forget which; it's been a long time).

Years later, I was working at an FBO in Anacortes, WA, on a C150 wing. One of the neighbors from across the airfield was visiting the boss, and was watching me doing a bit of rivetting. He passed his blessing on my work. I struck up a conversation with the gentleman. Turned out that he was a retired VP from Douglas. He also told me that he went to school with Donald Douglas Jr. We had a long conversation. A hangar is a good place to hangar fly. I then asked him about an airliner that was based on the XB42. He said he remembered that, that it was going to be the DC8, and didn't realize that anyone ever heard about it outside the company. He then went back across the airfield. At later times he'd come over and we'd talk. He got along pretty good with the boss, too.

Someone else who used to visit was a lady named Sally(again, I plead the passing years having faded parts of memory), forget her last name, but she sure like to talk about Fish Salmon. She was still flying at the time, but I think that since, sadly, she may have passed on.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has built a model of this "what if" airliner

O, one other thing. The reason this was never given more serious consideration as a passenger airliner was quite simple. The PR guys said that no one would willingly be a passenger on it, simply because the airstair was under the tail, forward of the props. They said that the customers would look at that and think that they didn't want to end up as chopped hamburger. This came straight to me from the gentleman I talked with.

Of course the llittle fact that it was going to be $100 000.- more expensivve than its nearest competitor didn't help matters at all. Airlines opted for Martins and Convairs instead. The bean counters triumphed, not for the last time

Yes, in the short run. But, seeing as it was to be a replacement for the DC3, which I guess was the standard to compare against, it was gonna cost approximately 1/3 per seat mile less. So, who knows?

Anywho, has anyone built a model of one, in contemporary color schemes? Such as with Delta, Eastern, ect.? Or, is anyone contemplating one?

There's certainly never been a kit available so it would have to be scratchbuilt if anyone ever does one. I have to admit it's kind of intriguing. Do you know of any decent 3-views one could create build drawings from?

Sadly, no. Perhaps if you were on good, or at least relatively good speaking terms with whoever is in charge of the archives for Douglas Aircraft currently are(mebbe one could contact Boeing PR, or even one of the curators at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field) one might be able to get a reasonably accurate 3-view, with possible sections.

I know when I was researching early Sikorski helicopters, I took a chance and wrote the company. Lo and behold, a couple months later, I received a package, along with a very nice letter from their chief archivist. So, there is that.

This would be barely sufficient to enable someone to make an approximation of the aircraft. But given that it was cancelled early in its development cycle an approximation is all anyone would ever have anyway.

Yes it would be. But then, from what I've seen in this forum so far, pretty much anyone here would be able to do it reasonable, or better than reasonable justice.

I'm trying to do a scratch build of an early proposed Soviet airliner(mid-30's). Can't find any photos, but I do have a three-view. Not sure how good a job I could do, because looking at many of the models here, I'm pretty much left in the dust. But, I wouldn't mind seeing a Khai 3. So I'm trying to bring it about. Gotta get a kit of a 1/48 PO2 for the engine and prop, though. It had an interesting seating arrangement for the passengers.