This was the second DC-2 in Europe, bought by the Austrian government, but little used and sold to Swissair in March 1936. Perhaps Swissair did not like the condition of the aircraft as it was resold to Spain before the end of the year. It served as a bomber in the Civil War on the Republican side, but also carried a delegation to Ankara in 1938 for the funeral of Atatürk, as EC-AGA. To EC-AAA. We have photos of this airframe as PH-AKF in 1934 and as EC-AGA. To see them, you can click on the yellow construction number link as always on AirHistory. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

Swissair's fifth DC-2, delivered several months after HB-ITO (c/n 1332). It was originally destined for Spain according to Douglas records, and used by the European agent, Fokker, as a demonstrator. During a demonstration at Croydon it wore 'X-1331', apparently a fake American NX registration, because it could not fly abroad under its temporary PH-AKF mark. HB-ISI destroyed in an American air raid against Stuttgart, Germany in 1944. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

The fourth, second and third DC-2 of Swissair, HB-ITO, HB-ITE and HB-ITA, gathered at Croydon. Winter photo from 1936 according to the source. Occasion unknown; maybe ski charter flights? Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

Swissair's second DC-2, operated between 1935 and 1952. To ZS-DFW. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

The third DC-2 delivered to Swissair and the second, HB-ITE (c/n 1322). The first was HB-ITI (1321). By February 1935, Swissair had four DC-2s while KLM had none until the spring, following the crash of PH-AJU Uiver in Iraq on 20 December 1934. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

The first European DC-2 operator was KLM, but following PH-AJU Uiver, the next eleven aircraft delivered through Fokker went to Lufthansa ('line number' 3), Swissair (4, 6, 7, 9, and 10), ALI in Italy (5), LAPE in Spain (8, EC-XAX, and 12), and France (11, F-AKHD). Line number 2 was sold to Austria as a government aircraft. At least five DC-2s wore PH-AKF temporarily, but this is c/n 1320 - the Austrian registration A-500, already applied by Douglas, is visible. Little used in Austria and sold to Swissair, but quickly resold to Spain and used as a bomber. Eventually EC-AAA. Photo by: Wiel van der Randen / KB - National Library of the Netherlands

The first DC-2 for Czechoslovak airline ČLS, photographed on its day of acceptance. Flown to New York, shipped to Cherbourg and reassembled at Querqueville airfield by Fokker technicians. Crews were trained by KLM. On 20 April 1936, OK-AIA flew the first commercial service by a ČLS DC-2 from Prague to Vienna and back, and then departed to Amsterdam in the late afternoon. This schedule was perhaps too optimistic and headwind, a failing radio, low fuel, and upcoming darkness caused the captain to come down in a wheat field near Doornspijk, Netherlands. The brand new DC-2 was a write-off. Photo from: Douglas

The sixth DC-2, parked in front of the terminal at Floyd Bennett Field. NC13716 to Braniff Airways in 1937 and Rudy Arnold photographed probably the same airframe in military service wearing only 1242 in 1942. It was allocated s/n 42-61095. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

EAL DC-2 in formation with the transatlantic Vultee V-1 NR13770 Lady Peace, flown by EAL pilot Dick Merrill. Another shot shows a second DC-2 too. Supposedly the photos were taken when Merrill set out for the big flight, but it is unlikely that he would have wasted fuel to formate with the DC-2s and the photographer's aircraft. Thus they were probably taken either before or after Merrill's transatlanic return flight, or during his return to New York, as NC13731 was the very DC-2 that flew in a new propeller for the Vultee to Harbour Grace, Newfoundland; see photos 415955 & 415972. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

This is not USAAF s/n 41-242 which was an AT-6A. It is almost certainly c/n 1242, the sixth DC-2 built, NC13716 with TWA and with Braniff Airways from 1937. Braniff's DC-2 fleet went to the Defense Supply Corporation (DSC) as of 1 June 1942. NC13716 was converted to a C-32A and was taken on charge by the USAAF on 18 June as 42-61095. The photo was apparently taken in the same month. The unidentified emblem worn might depict the tailfin of a large aircraft. The letters underneath read ASC or ASG, not DSC. Does anyone know more? Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Of the 18 DC-2s delivered to KLM, no less five were written off in crashes within three years. Maraboe crashed on the bumpy runway of Bushire, Iran in July 1935, only a few months old. Thanks largely to the Amsterdam municipal archives, we have photos in our database of all these aircraft as of late 2024, except PH-ALF. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

More spectators than passengers at Schiphol in the 1930s. You could go on a 'rondleiding' (guided tour). When WWII came to Holland in May 1940, Edelvalk (lanner falcon) was based in Portugal, apparently to provide support for the DC-3s serving KLM's Far East route, of which the European terminus was then Naples. She was the only DC-2 to join the KLM operation in England, becoming G-AGBH. Having survived the war, she was sold to Southampton Air Services, only to crash at Malta - Luqa in October 1946. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

KLM's Djalak, in service from 1936 until 1940, on display during some sort of open day apparently. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

Schiphol's spotting corner. The presence of a Bloch MB.220, the second aircraft in the second row, dates the photo in March 1938 at the earliest. PH-AKT Toekan, registered in May 1935, was captured by the German invaders in May 1940. It served in the Luftwaffe as NA-LA, used by General Christiansen, the German military commander in the Netherlands, but this seems to have been very brief as it was apparently D-AIAV of Lufthansa when it crashed on 9 August 1940 at Lämershagen near Bielefeld due to pilot error. Two passengers died. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

A rare photo of this KLM DC-2, which flew for five years nevertheless until destroyed by bombing here on 10 May 1940. The captain is waving, obviously knowing about the photographer's presence. The DC-2 initally served on the intercontinental Holland - Java route and this one is named Perkoetoet (zebra dove), a singing dove species which is popular as a pet in Indonesia. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

PH-AKJ and PH-AKO on the apron that is now Schiphol East. PH-AKO was destroyed here on 10 May 1940. PH-AKJ was damaged, repaired and used by Lufthansa as D-AJAW. Photo from: KLM Safety Herald

Instead of the big Fokker F.XXXVI (F.36), KLM selected the Douglas DC-2. On the right is not the sole F.XXVI but a smaller F.XXII, PH-AJP Papegaai. The DC-2 Gaai was KLM's second example after PH-AJU Uiver. It arrived in the port of Rotterdam in April 1935. Delivered through Fokker with 'line number' 13, it was already lost on 20 July in a crash in Switzerland which killed everyone on board. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

The former Western Air Express company was severed from TWA and operated as General Air Lines from May till December 1934. This was the second airline to fly the DC-2, having only one example in service for much of this brief period, NC13733 (c/n 1259), working route AM-13 between Salt Lake City and San Diego. Despite having fleet number 1, NC13731 was not delivered until September. At the end of the year, GAL's services were taken over by United Air Lines and its four DC-2s were sold to Eastern Air Lines. One of the men here is EAL's Eddie Rickenbacker - tall, standing to the right of the GAL logo. Photo from: Western Airlines