Its development dates back to 1931 after a TWA's (Trans World Airlines) Fokker F.10 crashed due to the failure of a wing caused by the water that had seeped between the layers of the wood laminate and dissolved the glue that held the layers together. After the accident, the Aeronautics Branch of the US Department of Commerce placed strict restrictions on the use of wooden wings on passenger airliners. Boeing answered with a new model, the Boeing 247 which was a twin-engined all-metal monoplane with a retractable undercarriage, but their production capacity was reserved to meet the needs of United Airlines, part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation which also owned Boeing. Therefore TWA needed a similar aircraft to compete with the Boeing 247 and they asked five manufacturers to bid for construction of a three-engined, 12-seat aircraft of all-metal production with a range of 1080 milles (1740 km) at 150mph (242 km/h). The most difficult specification was that the aircraft had to be able to safely take-off from any airport on TWA's main routes with one engine non-functioning. The most difficult one to operate was Albuquerque's airport which is at high altittude and with sever summer temperatures.
Donald Douglas, president of Douglas Aircraft Company was initially reluctant to take part in the contest as he doubted that there was enough market for 100 aircraft, which was the number of sales needed to cover development costs. However, he submitted a design consisting on an all-metal, low-wing, twin-engined aircraft with capacity for 12 passengers, a crew of two and a flight attendant. The specifications exceeded the needs of the TWA even with only two engines, mainly through the use of controllable pitch propellers. It was also insulated against noise, heated and fully capable of flying and making a controlled taking-off on just one engine.
As stated by Donald Douglas, the DC-1 costed $325.000 (That's $5,956,917.88 adjusted for inflation) of the time to design and build.
Only one aircraft was produced and flew for the first time on 1st July 1933 at the hands of Carl Cover. It received the designation of DC-1 (standing for 'Douglas Commercial-1'). It was tested for half-year and performed over 200 test flights proving its superiority over other airliners of the time like the Ford Trimotor or Fokker Trimotor. It was flown accross the USA from New York to Los Angeles, on 19th February 1934 setting a new record of 13 hours and 5 minutes.
Back on 15th September 1933, TWA accepted the aircraft with some modifications like an increased passenger capacity from 12 to 14 and adding more powerful engines. They also ordered a production of 20 of them which, at its developed version would be known as the Douglas DC-2.
The DC-1 never entered active service with TWA but was used for promotion purposes. It was sold in May 1938 to Lord Forbes in the United Kingdom, who operated it for a few months as his personal aircraft and was sold in October to the French Société Française de Transports Aériens which sold it just weeks later, in November 1938 to the Spanish Republicans.
It was assigned to the LAPE (Lineas Aéreas Postales Españolas - Spanish Postal Airlines) where it saw at least two camouflage schemes (as shown below) and was notorious for having transported the Spanish Republican Cabinet to the exile on 6th March 1939 from Valencia to Toulouse, in France.
It was given back to the Francoist authorities after the end of the Spanish Civil War and it was assigned to Tráfico Aéreo Español (Spanish Air Traffic - the most inmediate predecessor of Iberia, Spanish national airline) which re-registered it and named it as "Manuel Negrón". It was lost in December 1940 when after having taken-off from the airport of Malaga, it crashed shortly after for unknown reasons and it was scrapped.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-1
2. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-1 (translated)
3. https://aeropinakes.com/wordpress/1938/11/13/douglas-dc-1-de-lape-ejemplar-unico/ (translated)
4. http://jaon.es/dc1/index.htm (translated)
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