The DC-3 embodies a piece of flying history like few other aircraft. Exactly 32 years after the first motorized flight by the Wright brothers on 17th December 1935, the DC-3, designed as a sleeper transport of the skies made its maiden flight. Barely two years later the DC-3 went into service with Swissair also. On 8th July 1937 the HB-IRA carried its first passengers on the Zürich to London route. A new era of commercial aviation had begun: the age of the DC-3, which was to make history like no other aircraft before or since. By the time production ended in 1946, 10,655 had been built. KLM also introduced the DC-3 in 1936 and retained it in active service until 1970.