VH-ARD  Douglas DC-5       (c/n 426)

                              

                                Only 12 Douglas DC-5s were built.  The design of it was undertaken in 1939 along with the DC-4E.
                                Its production and development was thwarted by the outbreak of WW II.  In retrospect, however, it
                                actually cost more to operate than the DC-3 it was tapped to supercede, so whether it would have found
                                universal appeal among the airlines of the day is subject to speculation.  The prototype, NX21701 was
                                sold to William E. Boeing (interesting that, over sixty years later the Boeing Co would buy Douglas),
                                although he graciously relinquished it to the U.S. Navy.   The only airline to receive delivery of the DC-5
                                was KLM who ordered four.  Two went to their West Indies Division in Curaçao and two went to the
                                East Indies.  In the event, in the face of the imminent Japanese invasion, the West Indies machines were
                                flown to Batavia (Jakarta).   They were registered PK-ADA/B/C/and D.  PK-ADA was damaged and
                                was captured by the Japanese who tested it extensively at the Tatchikawa Aircraft Co plant.  The other
                                three escaped, flying refugees to Australia.    VH-ARD above was one of these (PK-ADC).  It was
                                originally put into service with the Allied Directorate of Air Transport (ADAT) and given the call sign
                                VHCXC.  In 1945 it was assigned the civil registration VH-ARD although inexplicably ANA operated
                                it on their Tasmanian services using the military call sign with a dash in it, making it appear to be the civil
                                registration VH-CXC, (see this link to the VH-C group).  Following its short tenure with ANA it had a
                                somewhat chequered career. It was grounded in 1946 when the Australian DCA refused to renew its
                                C of A.  Nevertheless it was purchased by New Holland Airways in 1948 and used initially on charter work
                                transporting Italian migrants to Australia but latterly (and illegally, at least as far as the Australian government
                                was concerned) on 'Exodus' like smuggling into Israel.  The above shot, in fact, was taken by Fl.Lt D.A.S.
                                MacKay at Tel Aviv in 1948 shortly before the aircraft was impressed into service with the fledgling Israeli
                                Defence Force.  
                                For a more detailed history of the ex-KLM DC-5s, and VH-ARD/CXC in particular, go to Fred Niven's
                                Spirits of Ansett history page at:
                                                                    http://www.spiritsofansett.com/history/Niven/DC_5.htm