Ernie P.
Posts: 2159
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Joined: 9/29/2007
Last Login: 5/24/2013
From: Bealeton, VA, USA
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quote:
ORIGINAL: 96TT
Douglas DC-2
Bingo! The Good Ship Lollypop it is. Parent to both the Bolo B-18 and the DC-3, it was truly a seminal aircraft. And; you're up, 96TT. Take it away. Thanks; Ernie P.
A truly seminal aircraft, it was renowned worldwide.
What warbird do I describe?
Clues:
(1) It was truly a world aircraft, serving in the armed forces of Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Australia, Great Britain and the United States.
(2) In addition, it was featured in one of the most famous movie clips of all time.
(3) If it isn’t a household name, it is only because it’s successor aircraft were even better known.
(4) It’s successor aircraft included both bombers and passenger planes.
(5) An early production model finished second, to a purpose built racer, in an 8,000 mile race.
(6) It was a low wing, twin engine aircraft; with variable pitch propellers.
(7) Introduced in the mid thirties.
(8) Also served with Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Spain.
Answer: The Douglas DC-2
The Douglas DC-2 was a 14-seat, twin-engine airliner produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Corporation 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.
In the early 1930s, fears about the safety of wooden aircraft structures (responsible for the crash of a Fokker Trimotor) compelled the American aviation industry to develop all-metal types. With United Airlines having a monopoly on the Boeing 247, rival Transcontinental and Western Air issued a specification for an all-metal trimotor.
The response of the Douglas Aircraft Company was more radical. When it flew on July 1, 1933, the prototype DC-1 had a highly robust tapered wing, a retractable undercarriage, and only two 690 hp (515 kW) Wright radial engines driving variable-pitch propellers. It seated 12 passengers.
TWA accepted the basic design and ordered 20, with more powerful engines and seating for 14 passengers, as DC-2s. The design impressed a number of American and European airlines and further orders followed. Those for European customers KLM, LOT, Swissair, CLS and LAPE were assembled by Fokker in the Netherlands after that company bought a licence from Douglas. Airspeed Ltd. took a similar license 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 actually delivered. 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 approximately $80,000 per aircraft, if mass produced.
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 (Stork) in the October 1934 MacRobertson Air Race between London and Melbourne. Out of the 20 entrants, it finished second behind only the purpose built de Havilland DH.88 racer Grosvenor House. During the total journey time of 90 hours, 13 min, it was in the air for 81 hours, 10 min, and won the handicap section of the race. (The DH.88 finished first in the handicap section, but the crew was by regulations allowed to claim only one victory.) It flew KLM's regular 9,000 mile route, (a thousand miles longer than the official race route), carrying mails, making every scheduled passenger stop, turning back once to pick up a stranded passenger, and even became lost in a thunderstorm and briefly stuck in the mud after a diversionary landing at Albury racecourse on the very last leg of the journey.
Military and government operators
Argentina
Argentine Naval Aviation - 5 (+1) DC-2 ex civilian Venezuelan [13]
Australia
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
Austria
Austrian Government
Finland
Finnish Air Force Donated by the Swedish military during the Winter War (1939-1940) which flew a bombing mission based on Tampere on 22 February 1940
France
French government
Germany
Luftwaffe
Japan
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service - A single example of the DC-2 was impressed by the Imperial Japanese Army.[14]
Spanish Republic
Spanish Air Force took over five DC-2s from LAPE inventory.[citation needed]
United Kingdom
Royal Air Force
United States
United States Army Air Corps ♠
United States Army Air Forces
United States Marine Corps ♠
United States Navy ♠
The DC-2 was the "Good Ship Lollipop" that Shirley Temple sang about in the 1934 movie, Bright Eyes.
The Douglas B-18 Bolo bomber served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force (as the Douglas Digby) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was built by Douglas Aircraft Company and based on its DC-2 and was developed to replace the Martin B-10.
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RE: Knowledge Quiz for Warbird wiz - 
