On this day in aviation history, February 20, 1939, the Douglas DC-5 made its first flight. Less remembered than its cousins, the DC-5 was poised to make advancing strides in the field of civil aviation, but world events ensured that the aircraft never lived to its full potential.
By the late 1930s, the Douglas Aircraft Company of Santa Monica, California had firmly established itself as a world leader in the field of commercial aviation with its Douglas Commercial (DC) line of mid-range transports, such as the DC-2 and DC-3. But as Douglas developed its first four-engine civilian transport, the DC-4E, it also began developing a 16-22 passenger transport as a “feeder-line”, meant to provide passenger service to smaller, regional airports. The new design was to be fitted with a shoulder wing, tricycle landing gear for better ground handling, and a pair of either Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet or Wright R-1820 radial engines. The aircraft’s fuselage also sat two feet from the ground, making passenger and cargo loading and offloading easier than the conventional taildragger configuration of the time.
However, because the main Douglas plant in Santa Monica was too busy with the production of DC-3s, and the DC-4E, and even the XB-19 heavy bomber prototype, it was decided that development should be carried out at the company’s El Segundo division at Mines Field (now Los Angeles International Airport), which had previously been home to the Northrop Division of Douglas before its namesake Jack Northrop left Douglas to form his own company in nearby Hawthrone.
The design of the DC-5 was overseen by Ed Heinemann, the designer of the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber, and who was also developing the design of the Douglas DB-7 attack bomber (also known as the Boston/A-20 Havoc). The influence of the DB-7 was evident in the DC-5, as both aircraft had a high wing configuration with tricycle landing gear. By the beginning of 1939, the DC-5 was ready to take to the skies.
On February 20, 1939, the first Douglas DC-5 prototype, construction number 411, registration number NX21701, made its maiden flight with Douglas test pilot Carl Cover at the controls. On May 4, 1940, the DC-5 received its type rating, and orders came in for production aircraft. The prototype DC-5, however, was later sold to none other than William E. Boeing, the founder of Douglas’ primary competitor, who accepted the delivery of the aircraft on April 19, 1940, as an executive transport for his personal use that he named “Rover”.
Even before the first flight, airlines were lining up to purchase the new DC-5. British Airways Ltd (a separate company from the current-day British flag carrier), ordered nine, while KLM Royal Dutch Airlines ordered four aircraft (despite the Dutch company Fokker having a draft for a similar-looking airliner called the Fokker F.24 (which was never built due to the outbreak of WWII)). In the Western Hemisphere, Pennsylvania Central Airlines (later Capital Airlines) ordered six DC-5s while the Colombian-based airline SCADTA (Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aéreos (an ancestor of Avianca Airlines)) placed an order for two. Despite British Airways Ltd getting British registrations for its DC-5s, British Airways was merged with Imperial Airways to form British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and dropped their order. However, both Pennsylvania Central and SCADTA cancelled their orders as well, with KLM becoming the only airline to maintain its order.
The United States Navy did help Douglas by purchasing seven DC-5s as military transports known as the Douglas R3D, with the Navy flying three of the R3D-1 personnel transport (USN BuNo 1901-1903), while the Marines flew four R3D-2 paratrooper transports (USN BuNo 1904-1908). Components of some of the DC-5s meant for British Airways, Pennsylvania Central, and SCATDA were also used to construct the R3D military aircraft. Much to Heinemann’s disappointment, however, the US Army Air Force selected the military version of the DC-3, the C-47 Skytrain, as the basis for its airlifting capability, and the Douglas El Segundo plant was used to build SBD Dauntless dive bombers. As a result of these factors, only 12 Douglas DC-5s were built before production was halted.
Meanwhile, the four aircraft for KLM went ahead as scheduled, receiving the Dutch registrations PH-AXA“Alk” (Razor-bill), PH-AXB “Boschduif” (Wood-pigeon), PH-AXE “Eend” (Duck) and PH-AXG “Grutto” (Godwit). Though KLM had intended for their DC-5s to fly European air routes (hence the PH- suffix), the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939 before the delivery of the aircraft from California would see KLM sell two of the aircraft to KNILM (Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaartmaatschappij – Royal Netherlands Indies Airlines), the separate flag carrier of the Dutch East Indies (present Indonesia), while the other two were sent with great anticipation to the Dutch West Indies for use by KLM West Indisch Bedrijf (KLM-WIB or KLM West Indies Network). KNILM and KLM-WIB each had their own variation of the Dutch aircraft registration code PH-, with the former having the suffix PK- and the latter PJ-. As such, the two DC-5s in the West Indies became PJ-AIW and PJ-AIZ, with -AJW gaining the name “Wakago” (a kind of goose) and -AIZ becoming “Zonvogel” (Sunbird).
Although pilots and mechanics with KLM-WIB loved the DC-5, the difficulty of finding spare parts plus the decreasing numbers of passengers at a time of war meant that KLM-WIB was operating Wakago and Zonvogel at a loss. As such, the two DC-5s in the Dutch West Indies were shipped to the East Indies in April 1941 to join their sister ships, PK-ADA and PK-ADB, which had arrived in the East Indies from California in September 1940. Later, Wakago and Zonvogel were flown from Curaçao to California to be shipped to the East Indies, where they arrived at Batavia (present-day Jakarta) in September 1941, with PJ-AIW becoming PK-ADC and PJ-AIZ PK-ADD. Just a few months later, though, war would break out over the Dutch East Indies as well.
For the Japanese Empire, controlling the Dutch East Indies was vital to fueling their expansion. The East Indies sit on one of the largest reserves of oil and rubber in southeast Asia, and with the United States embargoing Japan from accessing its oil, the attack on Pearl Harbor heralded an all-out offensive campaign launched by the Japanese against American, British, and Dutch colonies and territories in East Asia and the Pacific, from Hong Kong to Burma to the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. On February 9, 1942, Japan began invading British Malaya and simultaneously launched the first air attack on Java, where the four DC-5s were located. DC-5 PK-ADA was damaged during the Japanese air raid at Kemajoran Airport but was repaired enough to fly to the main technical workshops at Andir Airport (now Husein Sastranegara Airport) in Bandung.
As the fall of Java became more certain, the remaining three aircraft were prepared to escape from Andir Airfield to Australia. With the Japanese capturing the island of Bali, cutting off the conventional route to head to Darwin through the Sunda Islands from Bali to Timor, the three DC-5s were fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks and had all unnecessary equipment removed to save weight. Even with these modifications, the DC-5s had to make a refueling stop near Malang, 500 kilometers east of Bandung before proceeding to Broome, Western Australia. Using the cover of night, the three DC-5s, along with a Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra and two Douglas DC-2s left Andir on March 1, 1942, landed at Malang, where the illumination of the runway was improvised using headlights from automobiles, and by the morning of March 2, all six aircraft landed safely at Broome.
After this daring flight, the three Dutch DC-5s that had evacuated from Java were requisitioned for use by the Australians and the Americans. Though understandably infuriated at having to part with their aircraft, the Dutch crews had little choice in the matter and their allies did not want to charter the aircraft from the Dutch. The three DC-5s were assigned to the USAAF’s 21st Transport Squadron at Archerfield Airport, Australia as part of the 5th Air Force but wore Australian call signs along with USAAF roundels, with PK-ADB becoming VHCXA, PK-ADC to VHCXB and PK-ADD to VHCXC. These were often used to fly troops and supplies between Queensland, Australia, and Port Moresby, New Guinea.
In 1942, two of the Douglas DC-5s in Australia would be written off. On August 17, 1942, DC-5 VHCXA was destroyed by a Japanese bombing attack on Wards Airfield (5-Mile Field), Port Moresby, leaving charred remains behind to be photographed by Australian war correspondent Damien Parer. Meanwhile, VHCXB was damaged beyond repair in a forced landing at Lurnea Siding, Queensland, on November 6, 1942. By 1944, news of the DC-5s being flown by the 5th Air Force (often nicknamed the “Forgotten Fifth” by its members) had reached Washington, and despite two of the three aircraft being written off, the US Army Air Force retroactively designated these DC-5s as Douglas C-110s with the serial numbers 44-83230 through 44-83232.
During the fall of the Dutch East Indies, the Japanese captured DC-5 PK-ADA, which had been abandoned by retreating Dutch forces at Andir Airport, and it was subsequently restored by the Japanese and flown to Japan to be flight tested at Tachikawa Airfield near Tokyo under the Testing Division of the Army Aircraft Authority. The aircraft was also used for transport and radio-navigation training over the Japanese island of Honshu and flown in a victory parade of captured aircraft over Tokyo in 1944. By September 1945, the stripped out and engine-less DC-5 was found by American occupational forces but it was soon scrapped alongside Japanese-manufactured aircraft at Tachikawa.
As for the USN and USMC R3Ds, R3D-1 BuNo 1901 crashed on June 1, 1940, at Mines Field, Los Angeles, before its delivery to the US Navy, while R3D-2 BuNo 1904 was destroyed during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 (though other sources state that it was shot down off the Australian cost by a Japanese submarine on January 31, 1942). After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the DC-5 prototype, N21701 “Rover”, was acquired from William Boeing by the US Navy at Naval Air Station Norfolk, Virginia, on February 2, 1942, and the aircraft became the sole R3D-3. This aircraft, given the USN Bureau Number 08005, was also used as a VIP transport on the US East Coast, then flew in Alaska before ending its flying career at the Naval Aero Laboratory at Banana River, Florida before being withdrawn from use at Alameda, California, on June 30, 1946, and being scrapped. All other Navy R3D-1s and Marine R3D-2s survived the war and were subsequently scrapped by 1946 after being stricken from the naval inventory.
The very last remaining DC-5 aircraft would have a rather interesting epilogue. Having become the last surviving Dutch DC-5, aircraft VHCXC (C-110 44-83232) was later flown as an airliner for Australian National Airways (ANA) under the registration VH-ARD and was nicknamed the Bali Clipper. In 1948, VH-ARD was registered to Gregory Board of New Holland Airways in Syndey, a charter service to fly European migrants to resettle in Australia. However, although it was flown to Rome, Italy, it was sold there to an American citizen named Martin A. Rybakoff, who was residing in the Central Corona Hotel in Catania, Sicily.
As it so happened, Mr. Rybakoff was an agent for Service Airways Inc, New York, a front company to purchase aircraft around the world for the nascent Israeli Air Force. As Israel attempted to hold its own against the Arab League, the rag-tag group of mercenary pilots of the Israeli Air Force (including many Jewish American pilots who had served in WWII) used every kind of plane they could lay their hands on, and the last surviving DC-5, with its Australian registry VH-ARD still visible under hastily applied camouflage, and was considered for use as a makeshift bomber alongside IAF B-17s flown in from the United States, and the DC-5 was given the name “Yankee Pasha The Bagel Lancer”. VH-ARD’s actions during the 1948 Arab Israeli War largely saw it being used as a military transport, much as it had done flying between Australia and New Guinea during WWII, but in October 1948, the aircraft was damaged during a heavy landing at Ramat David Airbase, and remained grounded for the rest of the war, which ended in March 1949.
From then on, the aircraft was used as a ground instructional airframe at Ramat David Airbase and later Haifa Airbase before its fuselage was moved to the Givat Brenner kibbutz as part of a children’s playground. By 1955, the last remaining Douglas DC-5 had disappeared, having most likely been scrapped.
Thus ends the little known yet colorful story of the Douglas DC-5. Being the least known of the Douglas Commercial (DC) aircraft, many aviation historians believe that had it not been for world events, the Douglas DC-5 could well have had a successful career, but circumstances beyond the foresight of the engineers who developed the aircraft ensured that with the rapid advancement of aviation technology and mass production of its cousins, the Douglas DC-5 became a footnote in the annuals of aviation history.
Today in Aviation History is a series highlighting the achievements, innovations, and milestones that have shaped the skies. All the previous anniversaries are available HERE
DC-5 use in the evacuation of the Dutch East Indies is documented in the book, Zero Hour in Broome, the untold story of the attacks on northwest Australia in 1942 by Dr. Tom Lewis and Peter Ingman (c. 2010; ISBN: 9780957735156 (pbk.)).
Greg Board’s story is told by Martin Caidin in Everything But the Flak, written about the restoration of three B-17s pulled from the scrap metal yard in Arizona by Greg Board’s restoration company in 1961, which restored the airplanes to airworthiness, complete with operating turrets, for delivery to Columbia Pictures in England October 6, 1961. Martin Caidin was asked to go along as one of the pilots flying these B-17s across the Atlantic, while John Crewdson flew the dramatic sequences in filming of the movie, The War Lover (starring Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner as pilots of the named airplane). Note: Martin Caidin wrote several books in the Indiana Jones series, which accounts for inclusion of Harrison Ford’s line in Raiders of the Lost Ark, answering the question, “Can you fly this plane?”