On 20 February 1939 one of Douglas's less than successful aircraft, its model DC-5 a 16-to-22-seat, twin-engine propeller aircraft intended for shorter routes than the Douglas DC-3 or Douglas DC-4 made its first flight.
Slightly less than nine years later after only 12 were built it was retired from service.
It wasn't because the DC5 was a bad aircraft. It simply was the wrong aircraft for the time. By the time it entered commercial service in 1940, many airlines were cancelling orders for aircraft. Consequently, only five civilian DC-5s were built. Douglas by then were already converting to World War II military production.
However, she did leave a legacy for other twin-engine propeller aircraft regional airliners to follow. was the first airliner to combine shoulder wings and tricycle landing gear, a configuration that is still common in turboprop airliners and military transport aircraft today. The tricycle landing gear was innovative for transport airplanes. It provided better ground handling and better ground visibility for the pilots. The fuselage was about two feet above the ground, so loading of passengers and cargo was easier than aircraft with the then-standard conventional landing gear.
The first customer for the type was KLM, who ordered four planes. Pennsylvania Central ordered six and SCADTA, ancestor of Avianca, ordered two. When Douglas factories went into war production, DC-5 production was curtailed to build additional SBD Dauntless dive bombers for the United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) and so only KLM received the high-winged airliner.
In 1939, the USN ordered seven aircraft. Three were delivered as R3D-1s, the first of which crashed before delivery. The remaining four were R3D-2s for the USMC and were equipped with 1,015 hp R-1820-44 engines, a large cargo hold and 22 seats for paratroopers.
The captured ex-KNILM DC-5 in service with the Japanese Imperial Army Air Force
After World War II, production of the DC-5 was not resumed because of the abundance of surplus C-47 aircraft, converted for civil service as DC-3s.
Beech 18 and DC3 to SAAF Museum AFB Swartkop Airshow 2015
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