Douglas DC-5

Design and development

The DC-5 was developed in 1938 as a 16-22 seat civilian airliner, designed to use either Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet or Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial engines. It was the first airliner to combine shoulder wings and tricycle landing gear, a configuration that is still common in turboprop airliners and military transport aircraft, although the modern versions are actually high wing, as the structure sits atop the fuselage shell rather than intersecting a significant segment.

The tricycle landing gear was innovative for transport airplanes. It provided better ground handling and better ground visibility for the pilots.

The fuselage was about two feet above the ground, so loading of passengers and cargo was easier than aircraft with the then-standard conventional landing gear.

A very early design change was the addition of a 15-degree dihedral to the horizontal tail group to negate a hint of an aeroelasticity problem. The dorsal strake, introduced in minimal form and expanded to full growth on the Boeing 307, is also well developed on the DC-5. Another significant modification was adding exhaust stacks to the engine nacelles, which was retroactively incorporated after the series entered production. An unusual optical trick was applied to the prototype. The top of the vertical stabilizer and the outline of the engine nacelles were painted a darker color following the aircraft's contour, making the tail and engines appear somewhat smaller and the aircraft sleeker.

Prior to US entry into World War II, one prototype and four production aircraft were built.

Operational history

The prototype DC-5, Douglas serial 411, was built at El Segundo, California, with 1,000 hp Wright R-1820-44 Cyclone engines. The aircraft made its first flight on February 20, 1939, with Carl Cover at the controls. This sole prototype (configured with just eight seats) became the personal aircraft of William Boeing, who named it Rover. It was later impressed into the US Navy and converted for military use as an R3D-3 variant in February 1942.

The first customer for the type was KLM, who ordered four planes. Pennsylvania Central (later renamed Capital Airlines) ordered six and SCADTA (Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aéreos), ancestor of Avianca, ordered two. When Douglas factories went into war production, DC-5 production was curtailed to build additional SBD Dauntless dive bombers for the United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) and so only KLM received the high-winged airliner.

A dozen DC-5s were completed, of which four went into commercial service with KLM. The first two initially were put to use by the KLM West-Indisch Bedrijf and flew between Paramaribo in Surinam (now Suriname) and Curaçao in the Dutch colonial territory of the same name. The other two were sold to the Netherlands-Indies Government for use by KNILM (with no affiliations with KLM, despite having their head offices in Amsterdam) from Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) from 1940 onwards. The first pair were later also transferred to KNILM. Of these four aircraft, three were used for the 1942 evacuation of civilians from Java to Australia; the fourth was damaged in an air strike by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force at Batavia Kemajoran Airport on February 9, 1942, and abandoned. Japanese forces captured and subsequently repaired it for testing in Japan during 1943. This DC-5, painted in camouflage with Japanese Imperial Army Air Force markings, was later used as a transport in the Japanese Home Islands.

The three remaining aircraft made their way safely to Australia where they were sold to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and operated for the Allied Directorate of Air Transport (ADAT). Two were destroyed by the end of 1942, the other was transferred to Australian National Airways (ANA), which operated it throughout the war on behalf of ADAT. In 1944 the USAAF retroactively designated the three aircraft C-110 for administrative purposes.

In 1939, the USN ordered seven aircraft. Three were delivered as R3D-1s, the first of which crashed before delivery. The remaining four were R3D-2s for the USMC and were equipped with 1,015 hp R-1820-44 engines, a large cargo hold, and 22 seats for paratroopers.

After World War II, production of the DC-5 was not resumed because of the abundance of surplus C-47 aircraft, converted for civil service as DC-3s. In 1948, the last surviving DC-5 was sold by Australian National Airways to another Australian airline, which smuggled it to Israel for military use. The aircraft arrived at Haifa in May 1948, and from there it went to Sde Dov, where its markings were removed and the name "Yankee Pasha – The Bagel Lancer" was crudely painted on the nose by hand. The aircraft joined 103 Squadron at Ramat David Airbase. Because Israel was in the midst of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, it was occasionally used as a bomber as well as flying transport missions.