Transcontinental & Western Air    Douglas DC-1   X223Y        (c/n  1137)

                                 

                                  When TWA was looking to update its aging Fords and the fleet of Fokker Tri-Motors it had inherited
                                   from Western Air Express, it found itself behind a lengthy queue for the Boeing 247, since United had
                                   beat them to the punch and ordered sixty of the ungainly looking all metal airliners.  This move effectively
                                   tied up Boeing's production line for some considerable time, and the law divorcing aircraft production
                                   from operating airlines had yet to be put into effect.   Jack Frye, TWA's v-p of operations therefore
                                   issued a specification for a tri-motor airliner able to carry 12 passengers in soundproofed comfort and
                                   at a cruising speed of 146 mph.   Donald Douglas, in proposing the DC-1, convinced Frye that his
                                   criteria could be met safely with two engines.   The DC-1 first flew in July 1933 and was handed over
                                   to TWA in December of that year.   On 19 February 1934, the DC-1, piloted by Jack Frye, with Eastern
                                   Air Transport's Eddie Rickenbacker as co-pilot, made TWA's last air mail flight before the air mail
                                   contracts were canceled by the government.  Leaving Grand Central Union Air Terminal in Los Angeles
                                   (where the above shot was taken) the flight landed at Newark, New Jersey (stopping only in Kansas City
                                   and Columbus, Ohio) some 13 hours and 4 minutes later.  This beat their own ETA by three hours and
                                   was a transcontinental record.    The DC-1 became the progenitor of a long line of Douglas transports,
                                   the production model being delivered to TWA being designated the DC-2.   The one and only DC-1
                                   was sold to Lord Forbes in the United Kingdom in May 1938, who operated it for a few months before
                                   selling it in France in October 1938.  It was then sold to Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas (L.A.P.E.)
                                   in Spain in November 1938.   It was later operated by Iberia from July 1939 with the name 'Negron'
                                   and registered EC-AAE.      As such it crashed following an engine failure on take-off from Malaga
                                   Airport in December 1940 and force landed at the end of the runway, never to fly again.  Local rumor
                                   has it that part of the airframe was used to build a portable alter on which an effigy of the Virgin Mary
                                   is carried around the City on Holy Days.    Ironically, in Spain, the Virgin Mary is called the "Queen of
                                   the Skies".  With TWA the aircraft was named the "City of Los Angeles", City of the Angels.   An
                                   unconscious similarity!   The rare shot below, taken after the crash, is courtesy of Joaquin de Caranza
                                   Paris, the Director of the Malaga Aviation Museum (via the Austin J. Brown collection).