In the early 1930s, fears about the safety of wooden aircraft structures drove the US aviation industry to develop all-metal airliners.

When it flew on July 1, 1933, the prototype DC-1 had a robust tapered wing, retractable landing gear, and two 690 hp (515 kW) Wright radial engines driving variable-pitch propellers.

It flew KLM's regular 9,000-mile route (a thousand miles longer than the official race route), carrying mail, making every scheduled passenger stop, turning back once to pick up a stranded passenger, and even became lost in a thunderstorm and briefly stuck in the mud after a diversionary landing at the Albury race course on the last leg of the journey.

[4] Modified DC-2s built for the United States Army Air Corps under several military designations: ♠ = Original operators Several DC-2s have survived and been preserved in the 21st century in the following museums in the following places: The DC-2 was the "Good Ship Lollipop" that Shirley Temple sang about in the film Bright Eyes (1934).

[60] In the 1956 film Back from Eternity, the action centers on the passengers and crew of a DC-2, registry number N39165, which makes an emergency landing in headhunter territory in the remote South American jungle.

Author Ernest K. Gann recounts his early days as a commercial pilot flying DC-2s in his memoir Fate Is the Hunter.