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43-755: After successful license production acquired in 1935 of the earlier Douglas DC-2 , Nakajima Hikoki acquired the license rights for $ 90,000 in February 1938, to build the DC-3. Previously, the Great Northern Airways and the Far East Fur Trading Company had purchased 22 DC-3s from 1937 to 1939. This total consisted of 13 Cyclone powered DC-3s and nine Twin Wasp powered DC-3As, two of which were delivered un-assembled and assigned to

86-589: A 45 percent share in CNAC. The Keys share in CNAC wound up in Intercontinent Aviation, another holding company that he had established in 1929 to handle foreign airline investments; by that stage Intercontinent itself had become part of North American Aviation, another firm founded by Keys in 1928. From 1931 until 1948 William Langhorne Bond was operations manager and vice-president of China National Aviation Corporation By 1933, Keys had retired under

129-534: A DC-2, registry number N39165, which makes an emergency landing in headhunter territory in the remote South American jungle. The plane, Construction Number (C/N) 1404, survives today (see #Surviving aircraft ) in the color scheme of the one operated by KLM when it came second in the MacRobertson Air Race in 1934, flying a DC-2 registered in the Netherlands as PH-AJU Uiver . The real PH-AJU

172-408: A cloud of scandal and near bankruptcy. Thomas Morgan was his successor as the head of Curtiss-Wright which through cross holdings ultimately controlled both North American and Intercontinent. After a series of disastrous accidents and disagreements with Chinese leaders, Morgan decided to sell the 45 percent stake held by Intercontinent in CNAC to Pan American Airways : on 1 April 1933. Morgan concluded

215-639: A relatively new concern, Shōwa Aircraft . Both Shōwa and Nakajima worked in concert to create a production series. Although the L2D was intended for both civil and military application, the production run was largely reserved for the Japanese military as the Navy Type 0 Transport. The Nakajima prototype, powered by Pratt & Whitney SB3G radial engines, first flew in October 1939 and entered production in 1940 as

258-674: Is a 14-passenger, twin-engined airliner that was produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Company starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247 . In 1935, Douglas produced a larger version called the DC-3 , which became one of the most successful aircraft in history. In the early 1930s, fears about the safety of wooden aircraft structures drove the US aviation industry to develop all-metal airliners. United Airlines had exclusive right to

301-940: The National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) during 1945, serving along with DC-3s acquired pre-war. In 1946, another captured L2D2 was used by the French VVS Group Transport 1/34 in military operations in Indochina . Postwar, other L2Ds were located in the Pacific as either crashed or abandoned aircraft, and none exist today. Data from Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Douglas DC-2 The Douglas DC-2

344-653: The Vultee V-1A single-engine transport that "missed the boat" to Republican Spain ended up in China. Initially, the Nationalists maintained contact with the outside world through the port of Hanoi in French Indo-China , but the Japanese put pressure on the new pro-Vichy regime there to cut off relations with them in 1940–41. Flying in mainland China during the war with Japan was dangerous. A CNAC aircraft

387-399: The 21st century in the following museums in the following places: The DC-2 was the " Good Ship Lollipop " that Shirley Temple sang about in the film Bright Eyes (1934). A DC-2 appears in the 1937 film Lost Horizon ; the footage includes taxiing, takeoff, and landing, as well as views in flight. In the 1956 film Back from Eternity , the action centers on the passengers and crew of

430-644: The China Area and Southwest Area Fleets. With the large load capacity inherent in all L2D variants, the types were used in all Japanese theaters, as both a passenger and cargo transport, playing an important role in supply of the distant garrisons on the islands of Pacific Ocean and New Guinea. They were also adapted to serve as staff and communications aircraft as well as in the maritime surveillance role. The future president of Indonesia , Sukarno , used an L2D2 during discussions regarding Indonesian independence with Japanese authorities in early 1945. At least one L2D

473-760: The Chinese Finance Minister H.H. Kung . During World War II, CNAC was headquartered in India, and flew supplies from Assam , India, into Yunnan , southwestern China through the Hump Route over the Himalayas, after the Japanese blocked the Burma Road . Despite the large casualties inflicted by the Japanese and more significantly, the ever-changing weather over the Himalayas, the logistics flights operated daily, year round, from April 1942 until

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516-562: The Chinese National Aviation Corporation, a state owned company with an authorized capital of ten million yuan . Sun Fo , Minister of Railways and son of Sun Yat Sen served as its first chairman although the real power lay with the Minister of Communications, Wang Boqun. Two weeks later on 17 April, the Nationalists entered into a service contract with an American firm, Aviation Exploration Inc which

559-484: The DC-2 cost about $ 80,000 (about$ 1,780,000 in 2022) per aircraft if mass-produced. Although overshadowed by its ubiquitous successor, it was the DC-2 that first showed that passenger air travel could be comfortable, safe and reliable. As a token of this, KLM entered its first DC-2 PH-AJU Uiver (Stork) in the October 1934 MacRobertson Air Race between London and Melbourne. Out of the 20 entrants, it finished second behind

602-742: The Delaware-registered Civil Air Transport Inc (CAT) in an effort to save the aircraft from the Communists. After a lengthy legal battle (which went on appeal from Hong Kong to Privy Council in UK, as reported in 1951 Appeal Cases) the planes were delivered by the Hong Kong government to CAT in 1952. Moon Fun Chin , who flew supplies over the dangerous Hump Campaign to resupply the Chinese during World War Two,

645-499: The L2D1 with parts imported from the U.S. while the two Shōwa examples were being assembled to Japanese production standards to simplify manufacture. Differing in minor details, mainly due to the use of locally produced Mitsubishi Kinsei 43 radial engines of similar power, the initial series from both companies were very similar to its Douglas antecedent. Then Japanese engineered their own version L2D2, by 1942, Nakajima had built, including

688-622: The L2D5, was readied for production near the end of the war. The original DC-3s operated by Dai Nippon Koku KK were pressed into Imperial service during the war, serving alongside the license-built L2Ds. The L2Ds served in the Southern Philippines' air groups ( Kōkūtai ) in squadrons ( Buntai ) attached to the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Air Fleets (Kōku Kantai) as well as the Combined Fleet (Rengō Kantai) and to

731-469: The Ministry of Communications released its revenue. An old China hand named Max Polin managed to broker a new deal between China Airways Federal and the Ministry of Communication. On 8 July, the two rival airmail operators merged into a reconfigured China National Aviation Corporation, which thereafter was better known by its acronym, CNAC. The Chinese government had a 55 percent share and Keys' interests had

774-615: The People's Aviation Company of China in May 1952, and eventually became part of CAAC Airlines in June 1953. Today the original Convair 240 (with one engine missing) is on display at a Military Aviation Museum in Beijing. Liu left China in 1971 for Australia where he died in May 1973. The remaining 71 aircraft in Hong Kong were sold by the Nationalists, who had retreated to the island of Taiwan, to

817-511: The U.S. C-47 , appearing about the same time. Other L2D variants, while normally unarmed, the L2D4 and L2D4-1 variants carried one flexible 13 mm Type 2 machine gun in a dorsal turret in the navigator's dome and two flexible 7.7 mm Type 92 machine guns that could be fired from fuselage hatches, but this armament configuration was not a production standard. Although the Japanese civil versions were nearly identical to their Douglas equivalent,

860-431: The airmail and passenger service with an inaugural flight from Shanghai to Hankou. It continued to face overwhelming political and financial difficulties, not least from the Ministry of Communications which not only collected airmail revenue from its own service but from that of China Airways Federal. By the start of 1930 China Airways Federal was at the point of bankruptcy and threatened to stop operations altogether unless

903-405: The all metal twin-engine Boeing 247 ; rival TWA issued a specification for an all-metal trimotor. The Douglas response was more radical. When it flew on July 1, 1933, the prototype DC-1 had a robust tapered wing, retractable landing gear, and two 690 hp (515 kW) Wright radial engines driving variable-pitch propellers . It seated 12 passengers. Douglas test pilot Carl Cover flew

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946-628: The company designation Airspeed AS.23, but although a registration for one aircraft was reserved none were built. Another licence was taken by the Nakajima Aircraft Company in Japan; unlike Fokker and Airspeed, Nakajima built five aircraft as well as assembling at least one Douglas-built aircraft. A total of 130 civil DC-2s were built with another 62 for the United States military. In 1935 Don Douglas stated in an article that

989-525: The condition of the planes was rather bad, the Dutch military decided not to use the planes any further. The third was flown to Medan on Sumatera, however there were oil-leaks and it had to make an emergency landing and was abandoned. ('Japanese planes under Dutch command' by G.J. Tornij) Relatively few of the Shōwa/Nakajima L2Ds survived the war, although at least one captured example was in service with

1032-483: The continued Battles of Chengdu-Chongqing , Lanzhou , Changsha , Kunming , the looming Japanese invasion of Burma , Major General Mao Bangchu of the Nationalist Air Force of China was tasked with leading the exploration of suitable air-routes over the dangerous Himalayas in 1941; as a result, CNAC pilot Xia Pu recorded the first flight between Dinjan, Burma, to Kunming, China in what was to become

1075-612: The end of the war. The CNAC was a smaller part of the overall re-supply operations which included the USAAF's India-China Division of Air Transport Command . After World War II, in 1946, CNAC moved from India to Shanghai, specifically Longhua Airport , located on the western shore of the Huangpu River , 10 km from the center of Shanghai. The company was a huge organization, with departments for transportation, mechanics, medicine, food, finance, etc. The employees who numbered in

1118-471: The first test flight on May 11, 1934, of the DC-2 which was longer than the DC-1, had more powerful engines, and carried 14 passengers in a 66-inch-wide cabin. TWA was the launch customer for the DC-2 ordering twenty. The design impressed American and European airlines and further orders followed. Although Fokker had purchased a production licence from Douglas for $ 100,000 (about $ 2,224,000 in 2022) no manufacturing

1161-665: The green surrender crosses. In 1945 in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), after the capitulation of Japan, at least three L2D "Tabby" were captured on the Perak airfield (near Surabaya). They wore the marks of the Indonesian nationalists (a red and white stripe). As there was a great need for transportation, two Tabbies were (with the cooperation of the Indonesians) flown to Tjililitan near Batavia (now Jakarta). As

1204-710: The military variants, while visually similar, were substantially different. The Kinsei 51/53 engines had 1,325 hp (975 kW) and featured enlarged nacelles and large propeller spinners, while the cockpit bulkhead was moved back 40 inches (100 cm) so all four crew members forward were in one compartment, with three extra windows added behind the cockpit. The most radical changes to the original design came about due to wartime exigencies in shortages of strategic materials , that led to metal components in less critical structural areas being replaced by wood. As many as 20 transports featured wooden rudders, stabilizers, ailerons, fins, elevators and entrance doors. An all-wood variant,

1247-598: The official race route), carrying mail, making every scheduled passenger stop, turning back once to pick up a stranded passenger, and even became lost in a thunderstorm and briefly stuck in the mud after a diversionary landing at the Albury race course on the last leg of the journey. Modified DC-2s built for the United States Army Air Corps under several military designations: ♠ = Original operators Several DC-2s have survived and been preserved in

1290-422: The prototype, 71 L2D2 Navy Type 0 Transport Model 11s and then embarked on manufacturing combat aircraft of their own design. Shōwa , once their factory and production line was complete, built the next series, a total of 416 aircraft, including 75 cargo versions with the "barn door," and reinforced floor (designated L2D2 1). The first Japanese military version was equipped with wide cargo doors, essentially mirroring

1333-519: The purpose-built de Havilland DH.88 racer Grosvenor House (race time 70 hours 54 minutes) and nearly three hours ahead of the Boeing 247D . During the total journey time of 90 hours, 13 min, it was in the air for 81 hours, 10 min. It won the handicap section of the race as although the DH.88 had finished first in the handicap section the regulations allowed the crew to claim only one victory. It flew KLM's regular 9,000-mile route, (a thousand miles longer than

Showa/Nakajima L2D - Misplaced Pages Continue

1376-430: The route between Shanghai and San Francisco. The downfall of CNAC's operations came on 9 November 1949, when managing director of CNAC, Colonel CY Liu, and general manager of CATC ( Central Air Transport Corporation  [ zh ] ), Colonel CL Chen with a skeleton crew defected with 12 aircraft in unauthorized take-offs from Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport to Communist-controlled China. The lead aircraft ( Convair 240 )

1419-774: The route now known as " The Hump " in November of that year. On 8, 9 and 10 December 1941, eight American pilots of the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) and their crews made a total of 16 trips between Kai Tak Airport in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, then under attack from Japanese forces , and Chongqing, the wartime capital of the Republic of China. Together they made 16 sorties and evacuated 275 persons including Soong Ching-ling (the widow of Sun Yat-sen ), and

1462-621: The sale with PanAm president Juan Trippe . Trippe almost immediately put PanAm vice-president Harold Bixby in charge of the airline's new far east operation: Bixby was well known in banking and aviation circles as the man who had put up the money for the trans-Atlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh in the Spirit of St Louis . Between 1937 and December 1941, CNAC flew many internal routes with Douglas Dolphin amphibians (Route No. 3, from Shanghai – Canton, via Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Amoy & Shantou), and Douglas DC-2s and DC-3s. In addition, three examples of

1505-498: The thousands were housed in dormitories located in the Shanghai French Concession . Every morning, the company took the employees by a car convoy from the dormitories to the airport. CNAC eventually operated routes from Shanghai to Beiping , Chongqing, and Guangzhou , using Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 aircraft. Apart from purchasing war surplus planes, CNAC had also acquired brand new Douglas DC-4s , to serve

1548-574: The treaty ports. Even more ominous was the opposition from Wang Po-chun the Minister of Communications; in July 1929, he went ahead and set up an airmail service, Shanghai-Chengtu Airways , owned entirely by his ministry. Wang imported Stinson planes and competed with China Airways Federal on the Shanghai-Hankou route. He became in effect the father of China's civil aviation. Despite all the odds, on 21 October 1929, China Airways Federal launched

1591-729: Was a Chinese airline which was nationalized after the Chinese Communist Party took control in 1949, and merged into the People's Aviation Company of China ( 中國人民航空公司 ) in 1952. It was a major airline under the Nationalist government of China until the 90s. It was headquartered in Shanghai as of 1938. On 5 April 1929 the Executive Yuan of the Nationalist government of China based in Nanjing established

1634-727: Was captured at Zamboanga airfield in May 1945 and later repaired and tested at Clark Field. RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Walter Cheshire was in charge of troop and supply airlift in South East Asia after Japan surrendered. Due to lack of resources available he was forced to make use of Japanese Air Force transport planes and aircrews, creating the RAF Gremlin Task Force (GTF). This included the use of L2D "Tabby" aircraft that supplemented RAF 118 Wing C-47 Dakota aircraft. Japanese aircraft retained their white surrender finish with large blue and white SEAC roundels painted over

1677-607: Was done in The Netherlands . Those for European customers KLM , LOT , Swissair , CLS and LAPE purchased via Fokker in the Netherlands were built and flown by Douglas in the US, sea-shipped to Europe with wings and propellers detached, then erected at airfields by Fokker near the seaport of arrival (e.g. Cherbourg or Rotterdam). Airspeed Ltd. took a similar licence for DC-2s to be delivered in Britain and assigned

1720-730: Was lost in a crash a few months after the MacRobertson Air Race. Author Ernest K. Gann recounts his early days as a commercial pilot flying DC-2s in his memoir Fate Is the Hunter . This includes a particularly harrowing account of flying a DC-2 with heavy ice. Data from McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920 : Volume I General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists China National Aviation Corporation The China National Aviation Corporation ( Chinese : 中國航空公司 )

1763-561: Was the first passenger aircraft in history to be destroyed by enemy forces, in the Kweilin Incident in August 1938. By fall 1940, CNAC operated service from Chongqing (via Kunming and Lashio ) to Rangoon , Chengdu , Jiading (via Luzhou and Yibin ) and Hong Kong (via Guilin ). As the Japanese blockade of materials, fuel and various supplies severely strangulated China's already-deprived war effort, particularly with

Showa/Nakajima L2D - Misplaced Pages Continue

1806-679: Was to establish air routes between a few of the major treaty ports and manage all operations. Aviation Exploration Inc was a personal holding company of the U.S. aviation magnate Clement Melville Keys who at the same time was the president of Curtiss-Wright and a few other aviation firms. In June 1929, Keys set up China Airways Federal to manage the new airmail routes between Canton , Shanghai and Hankou . This new Sino-American venture faced acute resistance from military factions in South China: warlords had their own small air forces which had ambitions to earn income from airmail service between

1849-639: Was welcomed with pomp and ceremony in Beijing, while the other 11 landed safely in Tianjin . The aircraft were pursued by Nationalist fighter planes but were shielded by heavy cloud cover. The remaining airline staff with their families (a total of 3,400) snuck into China by land or sea later. The ideology behind the defection was nationalism as they believed that the Communist Party would best lead one, strong China. On 1 August 1950, both companies came back to operate services. Later they were merged to form

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