Douglas DC-2 DC-2

The civil DC-2 is the type's production version: an all-metal twin with a cantilever wing, retractable gear and variable-pitch propellers, powered by two Wright R-1820 Cyclone radials whose output ranges from 710 to 875 hp (529 to 652 kW) depending on the model. It first flew on 11 May 1934 with Douglas test pilot Carl Cover at the controls; TWA was the first customer, ordering twenty.

It was born of a technological race. In the early 1930s fears about wooden structures pushed the US industry towards all-metal airliners: United had exclusive rights to the Boeing 247 and its rival TWA specified an all-metal trimotor. Douglas's answer was more radical and produced the DC-1, a 12-seat prototype flown on 1 July 1933; the DC-2 is longer, more powerful and carries 14 passengers in a 66-inch-wide cabin.

Its reputation was sealed in October 1934, when KLM's DC-2 PH-AJU "Uiver" finished second in the MacRobertson Air Race from London to Melbourne among twenty entrants, behind only the purpose-built de Havilland DH.88 and nearly three hours ahead of the Boeing 247D; it also won the handicap section. And it did so flying KLM's regular 9,000-mile route — a thousand miles longer than the official one — carrying mail, making every scheduled passenger stop, turning back once to collect a stranded passenger and getting lost in a thunderstorm before briefly bogging down in the mud at the Albury race course.

A mass-produced DC-2 cost about $80,000, Don Douglas said in 1935. The aircraft for KLM, LOT, Swissair, CLS and LAPE were bought through Fokker in the Netherlands, but they were built and flown in the United States, shipped by sea with wings and propellers detached, and erected by Fokker at airfields near the port of arrival, such as Cherbourg or Rotterdam.