The idea for the Commander light business twin was conceived by Ted Smith, a project engineer at the Douglas Aircraft Company.

[2] The L3805 accommodated up to five people and was powered by two Lycoming O-435-A piston engines.,[1] it was an all-metal high-wing monoplane with retractable undercarriage using components from a Vultee BT-13 Valiant.

[4] Walter Beech test flew the aircraft in 1949 and expressed interest in buying the project, but passed on it, to instead develop the Beechcraft Twin Bonanza.

[3] The prototype flew successfully and the company leased, at no cost, a new 26,000 square feet (2,400 m2) factory at Bethany near Oklahoma City to build a production version, certified on 30 June 1950.

"Bob" Hoover demonstrated the Shrike Commander 500S for decades in a variety of "managed energy" routines, including single-engine and engine-out aerobatics.

[5][6] His Shrike Commander is displayed in the colors of his last sponsor, Evergreen International Aviation, at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

A number are still operated on contracts for cargo and fire control applications, as their piston engines offer good fuel specifics at low altitudes and longer loiter times.

[12] In 1950, when the developers were working to satisfy Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) regulations for certification of the 500, they chose a novel method of demonstrating its single-engine safety and performance: they removed one of the two-bladed propellers, secured it in the aft cabin, and flew from Bethany to Washington, D.C., on one engine.

[17][18][19] The turboprop twin-Commanders—with much more powerful engines (and most with longer bodies, allowing greater rudder leverage, critical for single-engine control[14][20]) – came out on the opposite end of the rankings, with one of the lowest rates of engine-failure accidents of all "light" twins examined, at only 0.4 per hundred-thousand hours.