Douglas DC-5

Douglas DC-5
Type:	Transport plane
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Douglas Aircraft Company
First flight:	February 20, 1939
Commissioning:	1940
Production time:	1939 to 1941
Number of pieces:	12

Douglas DC-5

Douglas R3D-2 in action with US Marines (1942)

The Douglas DC-5 was a twin-engine transport aircraft produced by the US manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company . It is the least known of the DC series of aircraft. The maiden flight took place on February 20, 1939.

history

The shoulder- wing aircraft was intended as a supplement to the DC-3 and DC-4 on short routes, for 16 to 22 passengers, and not as a replacement for the DC-3, as was often claimed. The DC-5 attracted the attention of several airlines and orders were received from KLM , British Imperial Airways , Pennsylvania-Central Airlines and Colombian SCADTA before the outbreak of war . Even William Edward Boeing ordered a DC-5 as a private plane, because his own company could not provide a comparable model.

However, World War II ended the DC-5's career prematurely, and airlines gradually withdrew their orders. Only one prototype, four DC-5s for KLM and seven R3D machines for the US Navy and the US Marine Corps were built. The Dutch DC-5s were used in the evacuation of Java . One KLM DC-5 was captured by the Japanese Army Air Force , and a second was lost in a landing accident. The other two KLM DC-5s were taken over by the United States Army Air Forces and designated as C-110s . The last C-110 was sold and surfaced in Israel in 1948 , where it was used by the Air Force until it was scrapped in 1955 .

The DC-5 went down in Douglas Aircraft Company history as the “right aircraft at the wrong time”. If the aircraft had been equipped with a pressurized cabin , it would probably have been able to compete with the Convair CV-240 . It is also speculated that Boeing gained knowledge from the DC-5 that was later sold to Fokker . This knowledge should have been the basis for the later Fokker F-27 .

Not a single Douglas DC-5 exists these days. This makes the DC-5 (after the Douglas DC-1 , of which only one example was built) the second type of aircraft from the DC series that has not been preserved for posterity.

variants

A USMC R3D-2 dropping paratroopers in 1941

DC-5

civil passenger aircraft, 5 built

R3D-1

military transport aircraft for the United States Navy with 16 seats, 3 built

R3D-2

military transport aircraft built for the United States Marine Corps with 22 seats for paratroopers, 4

R3D-3

Name for as adopted by the US Navy DC 5 prototype, which previously as a personal plane from Willam E. Boeing served

C-110

Name for three DC-5s taken over by the USAAF

Incidents

There were five total losses.

One machine broke in a landing accident, another was destroyed in a Japanese air raid.

Technical specifications

Three-sided view DC-5

Parameter	Data
span	23.77 m
length	18.96 m
height	6.04 m
Wing area	76.55 m 2
Max. Takeoff mass	9072 kg
Top speed	325 km / h
Max. Range	2575 km
drive	2 piston engines Wright GR-1820-F62 with 900 HP (approx. 660 kW) power

Bibliography

• Mike Hardy: Douglas Uncommercial. In: Airplane Monthly. April 24, 1996, ISSN  0143-7240 .
• Arthur Pearcy: Douglas Propliner's DC-1 - DC-7. Airlife, Shrewsbury 1995, ISBN 1-85310-261-X .

Web links

Commons : Douglas DC-5  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Boeing, Historical Snapshot, Douglas DC-5
2. ↑ Accident Statistics DC-5, Aviation Safety Network (English) , accessed on January 28, 2016.