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

Now exhibited in the Museum of Flight at Seattle. Re-registered N13711 in February 2011.

One of the 10 former Eastern Air Lines DC-2s bought by the Australian government at the start of World War II to bolster the RAAF's transport capability. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, A30-12 was camouflaged and the red centre of the roundel was painted out to avoid confusion with the Japanese roundel. Postwar A30-12 was sold to Marshall Airways and is believed to have been stripped of useful parts at Essendon airport. The rest was scrapped. Photo from: Townsville City Library

The large American flags painted on, and the number plate of the car suggest that the photo was taken during WWII in Lima. The car plate says '42' too, presumably indicating the year of issue. NC13729 to XA-BJL (2) in 1945, broken up in 1947. Photo from: Smithsonian Institution

Seen just after arrival in the Netherlands for the 1984 flight from London to Melbourne.

KLM DC-2s PH-AKH Haan (rooster) and PH-AKJ Jan van Gent (gannet), both reassembled by Fokker in April 1934 with 'line numbers' 14 and 16. Photo from: Life

Another picture of the first DC-2, this time in Kansas City with the Intercity Viaduct in the background. TWA abandoned its slogan 'The Lindbergh Line' in late 1938, and replaced it with 'The Transcontinental Line' titles. The two red tail stripes were introduced earlier. Photo from: Jackson County Historical Society

The first DC-2, registered in 1934. Foster Lane established the Port Columbus Flying School in 1935 and based himself in the TWA hangar. The front of the hangar originally carried the logo of TWA predecessor TAT, which was restored circa 2016, but what does it say here? NC13711 sold to Royal Air Force in 1941 as DG477 but by then it wore TWA scheme with two red tail stripes. Photo from: SFO Museum

VH-USY served with Australian National Airways from 1936 to 1947. Sold for scrap in 1948, it was converted into a caravan. The front was hitched onto the bed of a truck, the rear supported on four tyres (two doubles) under the name Laze-away Land Cruiser. It is being preserved as an aviation relic and at the time of the photo was squeezed into a suburban front yard.

2 Jul '39: TOS USAAC. 7 Jul 39: Fairfield Air Depot, Patterson Field, OH. 10 Jul 39: 1st Transport Squadron/10th Transport Group, Patterson Field. 31 Jul 42: Bowman Field, KY. For the next nine months the plane was assigned to numerous airfields. 9 Mar 43: Middletown, PA, Air Depot, then the 496th Air Base Squadron. 1944: Air Transport Command, Cincinnati, OH, for use as a ferry aircraft. 2/45: SOC with over 5,000 flight hours. Beginning 2/44 passed through several hands. 19 Sep 49: Crashed with fatalities. Repair with more owners as well as aerial application. 1970: USAFM. By 1977: Restored

The airport in Gaza was at times a stop on KLM's East Indies route. Geologist Heim was travelling to the Himalayas. Photo by: Arnold Heim / ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

Used as a café in Hämeenlinna.

On static display at Santa Monica since 1975. Was trucked to Long Beach, CA in 1982 for restoration to flying condition by the Douglas Historical Foundation.

Bought by the British Purchasing Commission during World War II but was refused British civil certification. Ended up in Africa as a C-32A with PAA-Africa with the USAAF serial 42-53529. Photo from: Denver City Library Special Collection

Why the interest in the DC-3 is not explained but Boulder City was the last stop before Burbank (Hollywood) for TWA's transcontinental flights from New York. It would have been popular service for Hollywood's stars. NC13718 was bought by the British Purchasing Commission during World War II and used by the RAF as DG471. Crashed in October 1941. Photo from: University of Nevada Las Vegas