Douglas DC-2 in the previous October’s England to Australia Mac-Robertson air race, the LAPE board of directors, during a meeting held in flight in November, requests that Spanish Director General of Aeronautics Ismael Warleta de la Quintana order five Douglas airliners from Fokker, their European distributor.
The company’s first DC-2 is completed at the Douglas plant in California on January 12, 1935 and arrives at Cherbourg by ship in midMarch. Following its assembly Fokker technicians, the aircraft arrives in Spain in April and is christened Hercules at a ceremony. The aircraft inaugurates Madrid to Paris (Le Bourget) roundtrips on May 22. Late in the month, a second DC-2 arrives and is named Orion. On August 6, a Fokker F-VII/3m is employed to inaugurate service from Madrid and Valencia to Palma de Mallorca.
LAPE receives a third DC-2 on March 1, 1936 that it christens Sagitario and during the second week of the month, the three American-made transports fly 9,810 pounds of government gold to Paris for safekeeping. By April, a total of 908 passengers have been transported on 153 flights over the new routes from Madrid and Valencia to Palma de Mallorca.
A fourth Douglas, the Mallorca, arrives in June and like its predecessors, serves on the Spain-France route.
On July 1, services are initiated to Paris, Berlin, and Geneva as well as Valencia and Majorca. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on July 18 prevents delivery of the fifth DC-2 and causes suspension of scheduled passenger services, including those to Palma de Mallorca.
The Douglas in Paris is summoned back to Madrid empty while Operations Manager Joaquin Mellado leads the Orion and Mallorca to Seville’s Tablada Airport, where he has orders to support Republic forces. Upon arrival, the Mallorca is disabled when a Nationalist officer, Capt. Vara de Rey, shoots out its starboard engine. Mellado is able to refuel the Orion and two Fokker F-VIIb/3ms, outfit them with bomb racks, and attack the Tetuan airfield in Morocco. The aircraft return to Madrid, necessitated by the fall of Tablada.
The DC-2 Mallorca, damaged by small arms fire at Tablada, is captured by Nationalist troops and repaired by July 25. It is turned over to Grupo 42 of General Franco’s air force, where it is christened Capitan Vara de Rey. Piloted by Capt. Carlos de Haya, later a famous Nationalist fighter pilot, the Douglas helps to ferry troops from Morocco to Spain and drops supplies to forces surrounded at the Santuario de la Cabez monastery near Cordoba.
The three Douglas transports remaining in the Republic’s hands are equipped with bomb chutes and a pair of machine guns and are sent to hit Nationalist positions, including airfields and the barracks outside of Madrid, at San Sebastian and Oviedo. In the first and only air-to-air combat between airliners, the Sagitario, while assaulting Badajos on August 4, encounters the Capitan Vara de Rey. The two aircraft circle one another while their gunners unsuccessfully exchange fire.
On August 11, the Capitan Vara de Rey flies General Franco from Mor-roco to Spain; the Fascist leader will retain the aircraft as his personal transport for the remainder of the war. The next day, the Orion completes its seventh gold flight to Paris in a series begun on July 31; in the two weeks, seven metric tons (one ton per flight) have been ferried out. The aircraft disappears from all records at the end of August, its fate unknown.
During the remainder of August and into September, the LAPE transports fly supplies on behalf of the Republic’s forces, and also make occasional bombing sorties. The Hercules is renamed Toledo on September 1 and another DC-2 is acquired from France on September 10-11 and, a week later, is placed on the gold service to Paris. After the fall of Toledo to Nationalist forces on September 29, the Toledo is rechristened Hercules.
LAPE pilot Jose-Maria Carreras ferries a fifth DC-2 from Paris to Barcelona on October 26; previously flown by Swissair, A. G., the Douglas will be part of a package that also includes two Lockheed Orions and a General Aviation Clark GA-43A. By November, the bulk of Spain’s gold is in France, from whence it will be secretly forwarded to the U. S.S. R.
Company headquarters are transferred to Salamanca, northwest of Madrid in early 1937 while, in France, the original Douglas DC-1 is purchased from the Viscount Forbes, Earl of Granard, by La Societe Fran-caise de Transports Aeriens, S. A. for transfer to the Spanish republic. The DC-2 acquired the previous September is destroyed on the ground at La Albericia airfield, Santander, on April 6.
While landing at Tarragona with 35 fully armed troops in May, a DC-2 is damaged; despite a wing bent to a 17-degree angle, the plane is able to safely return to its Valencia base. Acquired from Switzerland the previous fall, a DC-2 is employed during the year’s first half as flying headquarters of Russia’s chief advisor, Maj. Gen. Jacob Smushkievich, who will take the cover name “General Douglas,” keeping it even after he transfers the aircraft to LAPE during the summer. Throughout the year, the carrier’s Douglas transports continue to fly gold, silver, and other valuables to Paris as payment for goods and services, covert and overt. In late November, a DC-2 is employed by Republic officials to fly roundtrip to Ankara via Malta for the funeral of Kemal Ataturk.
LAPE transports continue their military support activities throughout 1938. The supply of valuables all but exhausted, the company halts “gold flights” to Paris in midyear. The DC-1, painted in camouflage, is delivered in November and enters commercial service over routes from Barcelona to Toulouse and Paris and to Valencia and Santander.
Following the collapse of Barcelona in March 1939, the DC-1 and DC-2s fly Republic officials to France. On March 23, the aircraft transports Colonels Ortega and Garigo from Madrid to Burgos, where the two men unsuccessfully attempt to obtain better terms from General Franco. The Republic government capitulates to the Nationalists in April, ending the Civil War.
The DC-1 and three remaining DC-2s are returned to Madrid in May, where they are entered on a new civil aircraft register, along with the Capitan Vera de Rey. The DC-1 initially remains unnamed and the Nationalist hero-transport retains its name. The Hercules is renamed Carlos Haya, the Sagitario is remarked as the Ramon Franco, and the final unit is christened Garcia Morato in honor of a fighter ace.
Late in the year, LAPE is replaced by a new organization, Compania Anonima Espanola de Transporte Aereo, S. A. (SAETA), to which all of its aircraft are transferred. Following one more change the following spring, the carrier’s lineage will reach its final form as Iberia Spanish Airlines (2) (Lineas Areas de Espana, S. A.).
World History
