Douglas RD-2 Dolphin – Warbird Wednesday Episode #193

Welcome to Warbird Wednesday! Since this is the episode before Thanksgiving we wanted to give a special thanks to all our viewers and all our supporters who have helped us grow our following by leaps and bounds. Thank you to Greg and Kevin for making sure the technical stuff is always tightened up and we hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoy it with your family.

Today, we are looking at the Douglas RD-2 Dolphin continuing down sea-plane way. Its first flight was in 1931 and had a small built rate at 58 units. Douglas initially thought this was going to be a “flying yacht” but with the great depression, they quickly realized this aircraft needed to be more versatile in order to market it. So many sub-changes were made that there are too many variants to name. The Dolphin eventually made it into military service when the Coast Guard bought 12 units.