Douglas DC-2

The Douglas DC-2 is a retired 14-passenger, twin-engined airliner that was produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Company starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247. In 1935, Douglas produced a larger version called the DC-3, which became one of the most successful aircraft in history.

Design and development

In the early 1930s, fears about the safety of wooden aircraft structures drove the US aviation industry to develop all-metal airliners. United Airlines had exclusive right to the all metal twin-engine Boeing 247; rival TWA issued a specification for an all-metal trimotor.
The Douglas response was more radical. When it flew on July 1, 1933, the prototype DC-1 had a robust tapered wing, retractable landing gear, and two 690 hp Wright radial engines driving variable-pitch propellers. It seated 12 passengers. The DC-2 was longer than the DC-1, had more powerful engines, and carried 14 passengers in a 66-inch-wide cabin.
Douglas test pilot Carl Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-2 on May 11, 1934. TWA was the launch customer for the DC-2, ordering twenty. The design impressed American and European airlines, and further orders followed. Although Fokker had purchased a production licence from Douglas for $100,000, no manufacturing was done in the Netherlands. Those for European customers, KLM, LOT, Swissair, CLS, and LAPE purchased via Fokker in the Netherlands, were built and flown by Douglas in the US, sea-shipped to Europe with wings and propellers detached, then erected at airfields by Fokker near the seaport of arrival. Airspeed Ltd. took a similar licence for DC-2s to be delivered in Britain and assigned the company designation Airspeed AS.23, but, although a registration for one aircraft was reserved, none were built. Another licence was taken by the Nakajima Aircraft Company in Japan; unlike Fokker and Airspeed, Nakajima built five aircraft as well as assembling at least one Douglas-built aircraft. A total of 130 civil DC-2s were built with another 62 for the United States military. In 1935, Don Douglas stated in an article that the DC-2 cost about $80,000 per aircraft, if mass-produced.

Operational history

Although overshadowed by its ubiquitous successor, it was the DC-2 that first showed that passenger air travel could be comfortable, safe, and reliable. As a token of this, KLM entered its first DC-2 PH-AJU Uiver in the October 1934 MacRobertson Air Race between London and Melbourne. It finished second of the twenty entrants, behind the purpose-built de Havilland DH.88 racer Grosvenor House, and nearly three hours ahead of the Boeing 247D. During the total journey time of 90 hours 13 minutes, it was in the air for 81 hours 10 minutes. It won the handicap section of the race, as although the DH.88 had finished first in the handicap section, the regulations allowed the crew to claim only one victory. It flew KLM's regular 9,000-mile route, carrying mail, making every scheduled passenger stop, turning back once to pick up a stranded passenger, and became lost in a thunderstorm and briefly stuck in the mud after a diversionary landing at the Albury race course on the last leg of the journey.

Variants

Civilian

;DC-2
;DC-2A
;DC-2B
;Nakajima-Douglas DC-2 transport
;Airspeed AS.23

Military

Modified DC-2s built for the United States Army Air Corps under several military designations:
;XC-32
;C-32A
;C-33
;YC-34
;C-38
;C-39
;C-41
;C-42
;R2D-1

Operators

♠ = Original operators

Civil operators

Australian National Airways
Holyman's Airways ♠
Aerovias Brasil
Aerovias Minas Gerais
Cruzeiro do Sul
Panair do Brasil
CNAC, jointly owned and operated with Pan American Airlines
SCADTA renamed as Avianca
UMCA Uraba Medellin Centra Airways ♠
♠
KNILM ♠
Aero O/Y
SAHSA
Deutsche Lufthansa ♠
Avio Linee Italiane ♠
Great Northern Airways ♠
Japan Air Transport
Imperial Japanese Airways
Manchurian Airlines
Aeronaves de Mexico
Mexicana
KLM ♠ ordered 18 aircraft.
LOT Polish Airlines ♠ operated three DC-2B aircraft between 1935 and 1939

; Spanish Republic

Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas ♠ received five aircraft.
Phoenix Airlines
Swissair ♠
American Airlines ♠
Braniff Airways
Delta Air Lines operated four aircraft during 1940–1941
Eastern Air Lines ♠ received 14 aircraft and used them on East Coast routes.
General Air Lines ♠
Mercer Airlines ♠ 1 airplane, sold to Colgate Darden in late 1960s, now in the Netherlands
Pan American Airways ♠ received 16 aircraft, distributing many to its foreign affiliates; some flew under its own name on Central American routes.
Pan American-Grace Airways ♠ used its DC-2s on routes within South America.
Transcontinental & Western Air was the first DC-2 operator, receiving 30 aircraft. ♠
PLUNA operated two DC-2s acquired from Panair do Brasil.
Military and government operators
Argentine Naval Aviation - 5 DC-2 ex civilian Venezuelan
Royal Australian Air Force - Ten aircraft were in service with the RAAF from 1940 to 1946.
* No. 8 Squadron RAAF
* No. 36 Squadron RAAF
* Parachute Training School RAAF
* Wireless Air Gunners School RAAF
Austrian Government
Finnish Air Force Donated by the Carl Gustaf von Rosen and KLM during the Winter War which flew a bombing mission based on Tampere on 22 February 1940
French government
Luftwaffe
Regia Aeronautica 2 aircraft
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service - A single example of the DC-2 was impressed by the Imperial Japanese Army.