Special Hobby 1/72 Douglas DC-2 'Transport Revolution' # 72511

In August 1932, the Trans World Airlines called on five aircraft manufacturers to submit proposals for a new transport aeroplane based on TWA's specifications.

Douglas company accepted that challenge and decided to design a highly advanced twin engine aircraft.

The first prototype known as the DC-1 (Douglas Commercial No.1) took to the air for the first time on 1 July 1933.

TWA placed an order for 20 production aircraft which were redesignated the DC-2 and had Wright Cyclone SGR-1820-F3 power plants, their fuselage was a bit longer and accomodated 14 passenger seats.

The first of the DC-2s took off on 11 May 1934 and its flying career with the TWA commenced on 18 May.

Regular flight operations of DC-2 began in July. The Douglas factory manufactured about 200 DC-2s which went to serve both with civilian operators and the military.

A licence was also bought by Japanese Nakajima that produced six aircraft for domestic Dai Nippon Koku Kobushiki Kaisha.

DC-2s quickly spread not only among airliners operating in the US, the succesfull type also flew with a wide range of Europe-based airliner companies, among which were the Swissair, KLM and also the Ceskoclovenski Letecki Spolecnost / Czechoslovak Air Company.

The introduction of the DC-2 brought a revolution in the air transport, both in its safety and the economy of operation.

The DC-2 was followed by even more famous DC-3 / C-47 Dakota type.
The plastic model kit comes on three styrene sprues, one with clear parts and also offers a set of nicely detailed 3D-printed parts.

The decal sheet brings markings for four DC-2 as flown over four continents.

Over America it was the machine of EAL, Asia is represented by the machine named Tsukuba of the Japanese Dai Nipon Koku Kobushiki Kaisha, over Australia flew the Pengana which is portrayed both in the ANA and AOA livery. And Europa is represented by Czechoslovak OK-AIC.

- A real beauty among airliners
- Machines with interesting history
- Large decal sheet
- Detail 3D-printed parts