The first European DC-2 operator was KLM, but following PH-AJU Uiver, the next eleven airframes distributed through Fokker went to Austria ('line number' 2), Lufthansa (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) At least five DC-2s wore PH-AKF temporarily, but this is the Austrian aircraft - the Austrian reg A-500, applied by Douglas, is visible. It was bought as a goverment aircraft, but little used. 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, low fuel, a failing radio, 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 US Army 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. Is the emblem worn associated with Braniff? 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. 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. 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. Luftwaffe service as NA-LA 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 aware of 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

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.