The Douglas Aircraft Company designed the M-2 to replace de Havilland’s DH-4s. In the mid-1920s, the plane would deliver air mail.
Douglas M-2s were sturdy, dependable aircraft popular with the newly formed airlines. They were a single-engine, single-seat biplane with a Liberty V-12 engine used by the post office and Western Airlines.
This M-2 was flown by Western Air Express, predecessor of Western Airlines. 1926 air mail service connected Los Angeles and Salt Lake City via Las Vegas.
The 1926 Douglas M-2 Air Mail Plane CockpitPhoto bySmithsonian
It was delivered to the Post Office Department in 1926 as an M-4, which had a more extended wing than the M-2 and cost $15,000. It was later reconfigured as an M-2. Western Air Express acquired the airplane in June 1927 and flew for almost 914 hours before it crashed in January 1930. It was then resold several times and was reacquired by Western Airlines in 1940 for display.
The M-2 mail compartment was six feet long and could carry 1,000 pounds of mail. It was in front of the cockpit. A unique feature was two removable seats. Passengers or reserve pilots could travel from one field to another. The passengers sat down in the compartment and were protected by windshields.