Bluegrass Airlines

December 2006

KNILM and the Douglas DC-5

By Allan Lowson

Photo credit Boeing Photo

KNILM – Koninklijke Nederlands Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij

When KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was founded on October 7^th. 1919, it was intended that the company would provide all future air services within Dutch–controlled areas of the world.

In spite of this there were a couple of local attempts to get a licence from the authorities in the Dutch East Indies, to provide air services within the colonies during the 1920s. The Dutch East Indies is now Indonesia and covers an area almost as big as Europe. These attempts were unsuccessful, mainly on the grounds of inadequate financial backing, but also through doubts that the relatively primitive aircraft of the era were up to the task.

The authorities in the Dutch East Indies had a change of heart after the Imperial Conference in London in 1926, when it was decided to create a network of services to every part of the British Empire. This would include an air route between Great Britain and Australia which would pass through the Dutch East Indies.

KLM asked for the right to provide a service from Sabang, via Medan and Batavia, to Surabaja. At the same time local businessmen wanted to create an independent Dutch East Indies airline, rather than have a KLM subsidiary airline. KLM lacked the funds to expand into the Dutch East Indies, so after a period of political negotiation, the Netherlands East Indies airline (Nederlands Indische Luchtvaartmaatschapp) was formed with headquarters in Amsterdam and a KLM representative on the board on July 16^th, 1928.

On October 15^th. it was bestowed with the title ’Royal’. The founders wanted to change the name to Koninklikje Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij (KILM). It was thought that this would sound like kill’m in English speaking countries – and not be considered too friendly. So the name that was finally set on was Koninklijke Nederlands Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij (KNILM).

The first aircraft ordered were four Fokker FVII/3ms. In order to get the crews experience of the aircraft, it was decided to have them flown out to the Indies. Two got through, but two were damaged in accidents at Cawnpore and Rangoon. These had to be dismantled and shipped by sea the rest of the way. Apart from the F.VIIs KNILM were later to order the three engine F.XII. Both aircraft are modelled by Jens Kristensen and are available at www.avsim.com.

KNILM were to continue developing routes in the Indies and took on Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 aircraft, as well as Lockheed 14s and finally Sikorsky S-43 amphibians for services to islands that lacked airfields.

In May 1940 German troops invaded the Netherlands, severing ties with the KNILM office in Amsterdam. Control of KNILM was now set up in the Dutch East Indies with a new board.

KLM had ordered four DC-5s from Douglas and operated two briefly in the Caribbean. All four were transferred to KNILM. Routes covered by these aircraft are listed below.

Throughout 1941 KNILM continued to operate services as usual, but the outbreak of the war in the Pacific led to the Dutch East Indies being overrun within three months.

Eleven KNILM aircraft were able to escape to Australia, including three DC-5s. All of them were handed over to the USAAC, effectively bringing the KNILM to an end until after the war. KNILM was finally wound up in 1947, when it was absorbed into KLM. KNILM operations are now succeeded by Garuda Indonesia.

Douglas DC-5

The Douglas DC-5 could be called the Douglas that never was, or that time forgot, but Boeing didn’t. After initial promise, aerodynamic problems with the tailplane and the start of the Second World War brought a premature halt to production of the DC-5 with only twelve aircraft built. In comparison Douglas alone built 193 DC-2s, 10,654 DC-3s and 1.244 DC-4s. There was one less successful DC, the DC-4E. Only one was built and the DC-4 design that went into production is significantly different.

The DC-5 was the only Douglas Commercial to be designed and built in the El Segundo plant. This plant had originally been the home of the Northrop Aircraft Corporation which John Northrop had set up with the help of Donald Douglas in 1932. Douglas held 51% of the stock in Northrop from the start. Labour problems led to the War Office withholding acceptance of any further Northrop aircraft until the problems were solved in 1937. This forced Douglas to dissolve the Northrop Corporation and take over the facilities as the El Segundo division of Douglas. Jack Northrop went on to form Northrop Aircraft Inc, which began operation in 1939.

Design of the DC-5 was carried out by a team led by Leo Devlin, and supervised by Ed Heinemann, to meet a perceived need for a short-haul feeder liner to complement the DC-3 being used on longer routes with heavier traffic.

Based on their experience with the Northrop Delta series and the Northrop 7A and 7B bombers, the El Segundo team decided on a twin-engined high wing configuration and a fully retractable undercarriage. The aircraft was designed to carry a crew of three and sixteen passengers, with the potential to carry twenty-two passengers in high density format.

The first flight of the DC-5 was on February 20^th. 1939. Orders were received from KLM, Pennsylvania-Central, British Airways, SCADTA of Colombia, and the US Navy Department. The British Airways order was cancelled at the outbreak of war and the deposits transferred to Douglas aircraft for British military use. This was the first British Airways, which merged with Imperial Airways to form BOAC shortly after this. Just to show how things come around, BOAC European and domestic routes were split off into BEA after WWII, and then were re-merged with BOAC in 1973 to form – British Airways.

The DC-5’s success was short-lived as aerodynamic problems surfaced during flight testing as excessive tail buffet was experienced. This proved to be due to interference between the wake of the high-mounted wings and engines and the tailplane. This was solved by adding dihedral to the tailplane to lift it out of the airflow behind the wing.

By this time Penn Central and SCADTA had cancelled their orders, and Douglas had decided to concentrate their efforts on their current military programmes. Therefore only five commercial and seven military variants were built.

Of the five commercial aircraft, four were delivered to KLM, with two being delivered to KLM’s West Indies Division in Curacao. These were registered PJ-AIW Wakago and PJ-AIZ Zonvogel. After a year these two were transferred to KNILM as PK-ADD and PK-ADC, following on from the two which went direct to the Dutch East Indies, PK-ADA and PK-ADB. PK-ADA was captured by the Japanese. The remaining three were operated in Australia and New Guinea by Australia National Airways (ANA) and No. 21 Squadron RAAF, with the registrations VH-CXA to VH-CXC. They were then impressed by the USAAF for the duration. After the war CXC was bought as scrap by ANA, repaired and re-registered as VH-ARD. This was the last flyable DC-5 and was bought by New Holland Airways in 1947, ending its career at Tel Aviv Aeronautical Technical School.

Finally, the reason Boeing did not forget the DC-5 was the fifth commercial model, the only one to not go to KNILM at some time. It was bought by Boeing to be the personal aircraft of William Boeing himself. One suggestion for this purchase was that William Boeing wanted customers to pay for every aircraft that came out of his factory, so when he wanted an aircraft for himself he bought them from the opposition. The picture at the top is also from the Boeing Photo Archive, as Douglas were absorbed ultimately by Boeing.

KNILM Routes in the Dutch East Indies

These routes were taken from the OAG for August 1939. The original city names have been used. Where a smaller airfield that fits in with the era is available, this has been used.

Batavia-Semarang-Soerabaja (Route 75)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
100	0	0730	Batavia	WIIA	1010	-	231
-	231	1010 arr	Semarang	WIIS	0750 dep	280	0
099	0	1025 dep	Semarang	WIIS	0735 arr	-	145
-	145	1220	Soerabaja	WRSJ	0600	279	0

Soerabaja-Bandjermasin-Balikpapan-Tarakan (Route 76)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
025	0	0630	Soerabaja	WRSJ	1400	-	264
-	264	0830 arr	Bandjermasin	WRBB	1200 dep	205	0
043	0	0850 dep	Bandjermasin	WRBB	1130 arr	-	182
-	182	1015 arr	Balikpapan	WRLL	1000 dep	223	0
007	0	1045 dep	Balikpapan	WRLL	0935 arr	-	279
-	279	1250	Tarakan	WRLR	0730	187	0

Batavia-Palembang-Singapore-Saigon (Route 77)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
331	0	0800	Batavia	WIIA	1720	-	232
-	232	0915 arr	Palembang	WIPP	1455 dep	151	0
349	0	0945 dep	Palembang	WIPP	1425 arr	-	264
-	264	1200 arr	Singapore	WSSL	1250 dep	169	0
017	0	1230 dep	Singapore	WSSL	1220 arr	-	588
-	588	1640	Saigon	VVTS	0730	197	0

Batavia-Palembang-Pakanbaroe-Medan (Route 78)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
331	0	0815	Batavia	WIIA	1650	-	232
-	232	0930 arr	Palembang	WIPP	1425 dep	151	0
316	0	1000 dep	Palembang	WIPP	1355 arr	-	281
-	281	1130 arr	Pakanbaroe	WIBB	1120 dep	136	0
316	0	1200 dep	Pakanbaroe	WIBB	1050 arr	-	250
-	250	1350	Medan	WIMM	0900	136	0

Batavia-Soerabaja-Makassar (Route 79)

Heading

Distance

Down

City Name

ICAO