Douglas DC-2 - Austrian Airforce One - 1934

In 1932, a Junkers F13 was made available for the then Federal Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. Engelbert Dollfuß, for various trips abroad. The pilot, with the rank of a government pilot, was Wilhelm Elssler (a great-nephew of Fanny Elssler the famous ballet dancer). When Dollfuss became Chancellor on 20 May, his business trips often took him to Rome to see Mussolini. He always used the latest JuF 13 machines (A48, A57, A58).
When the Douglas DC 2 emerged as the clear winner of the England-Australia race and also clearly distanced the competitors in the average cruising speed, Elssler lobbied Dollfuss for the purchase of such an aircraft. Packed in boxes, the DC2 arrived by sea from New York to Cherbourg and was assembled at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. On 1 November 1934, it flew to Vienna-Aspern with the special registration A500, piloted by pilot Elssler and flight mechanic Hölzl.
Dollfuss himself did not to see the commissioning of the DC2 as a government aircraft, because he was murdered on July 25, 1934. His successor was Dr. Kurt Schuschnigg. The new DC2 could not be integrated into scheduled service, as it had to be ready for take-off at Aspern airfield at all times for government flights. Beside this it was only used for sightseeing flights and some special short trips. Due to the low capacity utilization, the DC2 was sold to Swiss Air on 12 March 1936 with only 124 flight hours and 37 flight minutes. Swiss Air already had this type of aircraft in use and added the "new one" with the registration number HB-JSA to its air fleet. Through a broker,"our" DC2 was sold to Spain on October 28, 1936, where it was used by the Republicans during the Civil War.