DC-4 navigation lights

[airfixpeter]

I have just brought a revell DC-4 and i have set of navigation lights for it but i have had a good Google to find out what goes where without much success does anyone know what lights goes where. 

Any help would be much appreciated. 

[Space Ranger]

There’s a red light at the port (left) wingtip, a green light at the starboard (right) wingtip, and a white light at the tail. This is standard for all aircraft. Flashing beacons (red) are usually on fuselage top and bottom, midway from nose to tail. These are generally all molded in the proper positions on the kit plastic unless the kit provides clear parts for the lights, in which case they should be noted in the instructions.

[Eric Mc]

DC-4s/C-54s often had their upper anti-collision beacon on the tip of the tail fin. This is the 1/144 Minicraft kit 

 

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Be sure to check photos of the aircraft you're modeling (the usual advice), because early in-service DC-4s may not have had the red nav light on the tip of the vertical stabilizer.  My C-54, representing a 1948-9 period aircraft, lacks the light.  All other details are as people have discussed here.  

[f111guru]

23 hours ago, airfixpeter said:

I have just brought a revell DC-4 and i have set of navigation lights for it but i have had a good Google to find out what goes where without much success does anyone know what lights goes where. 

Any help would be much appreciated. 

This aircraft is on display at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum Rapid City South Dakota. Hope this helps.

All The Best,

Ron VanDerwarker

[TheyJammedKenny!]

23 hours ago, f111guru said:

This aircraft is on display at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum Rapid City South Dakota. Hope this helps

Beautiful picture, and the aircraft appears to be in excellent shape.  It's configured to a mid-1950s standard, post-Korean War, with the radar nose.  The first attempts to put radar on a C-54 were done during the Berlin Airlift, but with a white/light grey AN/APS-4 pod mounted underneath the fuselage.  

 

Again, photos of the real DC-4, in the period that you desire, are always helpful.  I have pictures of Capital Airlines, Seaboard, American Airlines, and Pan Am aircraft from the 1946-55 timeframe that do not show any red beacon on the tail, and the in-flight shots I have of American and Pan Am aircraft lack the under-fuselage beacon.  With the exception of the Pan Am aircraft (among the new-delivery "real" DC-4s), they are all ex C-54s or C-54A's with the small/short carb intake on top of the engine nacelles.  Keep in mind that the earliest delivered C-54s (NOT A's) had the airline passenger door fitted as standard, rather than the two-part cargo door.  These were among the first to reach service with postwar airlines such as Capital.  By 1961/62 it appears that all DC-4s were fitted with the red beacon atop the vertical tail, but even here you see exceptions.