The Life of Douglas DC-2-118B, S/N 1368

At age 72, the last flyable
commercial DC-2, now located at the Museum of Flight in Seattle,
Washington, may have made its last flight. Departing from Van Nuys airport
in late June 2007, where it had undergone interior refurbishment and
addition of a Transcontinental &Western paint scheme at Boeing Field.
Having survived for many years as the sole flyable commercial DC-2 in the
world, it will now rest among other historic airplanes for the public to
enjoy. There is actually one other flyable DC-2 in Amsterdam, originally
built for the U.S. Navy as the R2D-1 staff transport, but much later used
as a civil aircraft transport and still later by a private owner until
purchased by the Aviodrome Museum in The Netherlands.
     DC-2 S/N 1368, the 77th off the production line,
was originally delivered to Pan American Aviation Services on March 16,
1935, registered as NC14296. Title transfer to Pan American Airways, Inc.,
took place on April 9, 1935. Available records fail to disclose where the
airplane spent its first two years but it is known that on October 26,
1937, it was transferred to Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, S.A., with the
registration of XA-BJL. Juan Trippe, president of Pan American Airways,
who was rapidly expanding Pan American, had acquired 51 percent of the
stock of Mexicana and sent several airplanes to Mexico to update the
airlines’ equipment, DC-2 S/N 1368 being one of them.
     As Pan American continued to expand southward,
Trippe moved into Guatemala and on October 11, 1940, established the
airline Aerovias de Guatemela. He then transferred two . . .