Donald W. Douglas
|
"When you design
it, think how you would feel if you had to fly it! Safety first!"
-- a sign
posted by Donald Douglas at the DC-1 construction site. |
[Much
of this profile is based on Wilbur H. Morrison’s biography, Donald W.
Douglas: A Heart With Wings, published in 1991 by
Iowa
State
University
Press.]
Donald
Wills Douglas (1892-1981), aircraft builder extraordinaire, was one of the
handful of men who made Southern California the center of
U.S.
aviation
for much of the 20th century. His commercial airliners set the
industry standard for reliability and safety. His combat aircraft helped win
World War II.
Born
in Brooklyn, N. Y.,
Douglas
grew up fascinated
with airplanes. But unlike Glenn Curtiss, Glenn L. Martin, Howard Hughes, and other aviation pioneers who both
built and flew planes,
Douglas
never learned
to fly. As a teenager in 1909, he watched Orville Wright make his first tests
to qualify the Wright Flyer for acceptance by the
U.S.
Army. Three years later, he
enrolled at the nation’s top engineering school, MIT, and graduated in
only two years. At the time, the Institute offered no course in aeronautical
engineering. So outstanding was
Douglas
that
he was asked to stay on and help build MIT’s first wind tunnel. He was
also asked to assist his former teacher, Jerome C. Hunsaker, start a course in
aerodynamics and aeronautical engineering.
It
was Hunsaker who recommended Douglas to Glenn Martin, who had moved to
Los Angeles
in 1912 and needed a chief engineer for his
company, which was then building military planes near
Griffith
Park
.
When Douglas arrived in 1915, Los Angeles was already on its way to becoming
the aviation capital of the U.S. Five years earlier, the nation’s first
international air meet was held at Dominguez Field near Wilmington. (By the
late 1920s, writes California historian Kevin Starr in his book Material
Dreams, "more than 25 airplane and aviation motor manufacturers were
active in the region, accounting for a billion-dollar industry….Fully a
third of the aviation traffic in the United States operated from the 50 private
landing fields in greater Los Angeles, where there were some 3,000 licensed
pilots.")
Douglas
held the job with Martin only briefly, as a year later he accepted an offer to
become chief civilian aeronautical engineer for the Army Signal Corps.
"Douglas’s main job during the year he spent in
Washington
was to work on redesigning
British planes," writes Wilbur H. Morrison in his 1991 biography, Donald
W. Douglas: A Heart With Wings. "During his government service he
argued forcefully for the design of stronger airplanes but each time he had a
new airplane to propose, orders came down from above to scrap it."
America
entered
WW I woefully short of both planes and pilots.
In
1918 Douglas returned to work for Glenn Martin, but this time in
Cleveland
,
Ohio
,
where Martin had moved his operations. Douglas’s first assignment was to
help design the first twin-engine bomber, the MB-1, followed by the MB-2.
By
this time, Douglas (aged 28) was eager to start his own company, but not in the
Midwest
. "First, he wanted a better
climate for his children, and he knew that a plant in
California
would permit him to build
airplanes cheaper because more work could be done outdoors. And flying
conditions were almost ideal because flights could be made almost the year
round," writes Morrison.
Through
the help of a friend, Los Angeles Times sports editor Bill Henry, Douglas met sportsman David R. Davis, who was eager
to win prize money as the first person to fly nonstop across the U.S. Douglas
agreed to build a plane for Davis, and the two men formed the Davis-Douglas
Aircraft Company in 1920. Headquarters was a rented office behind a barber shop
on
Pico Boulevard
in
Santa Monica
.
Douglas’s wife, Charlotte, contributed his $2,000 share from her personal
savings. The plane, known as the Cloudster, was built in sections on the
second floor of a downtown
L.A.
factory. Assemblies were lowered down an elevator shaft and completed at a
Goodyear blimp facility in the area. Unfortunately, the Cloudster failed
to win the prize for
Davis
.
Its engine quit over
Texas
;
the plane landed safely but was damaged on the ground. While repairs were being
made, a rival plane made the nonstop flight. A disappointed
Davis
withdrew from the company, which was
re-incorporated as Douglas Aircraft Company.
Part
of the Cloudster’s design was integrated into the design of a new
folding-wing torpedo plane (the DT-1) requested by the Navy. Impressed,
the Navy agreed to buy three DT-1s for $120,000, but made only a partial
up-front payment that left
Douglas
$15,000
short of what he needed to build them. This time it was
Los
Angeles
Times publisher Harry Chandler who came to
Douglas
’s aid, agreeing to guarantee a $15,000
loan. ("I’m interested in the growth of
Los
Angeles
,"
Chandler
reportedly
told
Douglas
. "We need people like you
and new plants, so I’m going to help.") The three planes were built,
as were 38 of a follow-up version (the DT-2). Douglas Aircraft was in
business to stay. In 1922, company facilities were consolidated at 24th and Wilshire in
Santa Monica
,
the site of an abandoned movie studio.
A
series of successes followed on the heels of the DT series. Under a
contract with the Army Air Corps,
Douglas
’s
company designed and built the first planes to circumnavigate the globe in
1924. Five World Cruisers were built; two of them flew the distance,
logging almost 29,000 miles over a span of six months and six days. More than
200,000 people greeted the triumphant crews when they returned to
Santa Monica
’s
Clover Field on September 3. "The flight, more than any previous one,
brought aviation to the fore, and the company was the first to benefit from
renewed interest in aviation," writes Morrison. Douglas Aircraft was now
on the aviation map. By January 1925 its workforce had grown to 112.
Other
design and construction contracts followed – for an Army observation
plane (the O-2); for a Western Air Express mail carrier (the M-2);
for a mail plane for the U.S. Post Office; for an Army cargo, transport and
medical evacuation plane (the C-1C); and for a Navy flying boat (the PD-1),
among others. Douglas’s first successful monoplane was the Douglas
Dolphin, an amphibian that took off and landed on water. One early Dolphin
purchaser was Wilmington-Catalina Airline.
Douglas
’s reputation as a master
aircraft builder attracted the best and the brightest engineering talent to his
company. Over the years, these included Arthur E. Raymond, John (Jack)
Northrop, Jerry Vultee, Lee Atwood, E. H. (Ed) Heinemann, and James H. (Dutch)
Kindelberger. Northrop ran
Douglas
’s El
Segundo subsidiary before leaving to form his own company. So did Vultee.
Atwood and Kindelberger went on to run North American Aviation.
The
1930s marked a revolution in air travel. Spurred by arch-rival William E.
Boeing’s plan to build a 10-passenger commercial airliner known as the
247, and encouraged by management at TWA, Douglas and his team began work on
the first of a series of DC transports, the record-setting, 12-passenger DC-1,
which went into TWA service in late 1933. "Douglas had risked the
company’s future when he gave the go-ahead for the DC-1,"
writes Morrison. "He also knew there had been no alternative, with
military appropriations being whittled to the bone, but the gamble had been
well worth the risk. Only one DC-1 was built, but it fulfilled its mission;
fostering a whole new generation of commercial transports."
The
DC-1 was quickly followed by the transcontinental, 14-passenger DC-2 (for which
Douglas
won the Collier Trophy,
aviation’s highest award) and, in 1936, by the legendary 21-passenger DC-3,
a plane unparalleled for dependability and economy. In the words of airline
executive Jack Frye, the DC-3 was "the first airplane that could
make money by hauling passengers." Over the years, more than 800 DC-3s
were built, along with more than 10,000 military versions known as the C-47.
The DC-2 and DC-3 became the industry standards, overwhelming
Boeing’s 247 and dominating U.S. air travel during the pre-World War II
years. "During one period in the 1930s more than 50 percent of all air
travelers flew in
Douglas
commercial
transports," writes Morrison.
Fortune
magazine wrote in 1941: "The development of the airplane in the days
between the wars is the greatest engineering story there ever was, and in the
heart of it is Donald Douglas."
World
War II transformed the aircraft industry in
Southern
California
. In 1941, Douglas opened a third facility in
Long Beach
to handle the
growing demand for military planes and parts. Between 1940 and 1943, the
Douglas
workforce grew from 8,000 to 160,000 at six
plants around the country. Overall,
California
’s
aircraft industry workforce grew from 25,000 in 1940 to 300,000, all within
three years.
It
is no exaggeration to say that Douglas planes played a crucial role in the
Allied victories over
Japan
and
Germany
.
As troop and cargo transports, the C-47 and C-54 (a military
version of the DC-4) were indispensable. Most noteworthy, perhaps, was
the Dauntless scout bomber, the workhorse of the
U.S.
Pacific fleet which sank an enormous tonnage of enemy ships, including four
Japanese carriers at the
Battle
of Midway. A major role was also played by the A-20 Havoc attack bomber
and its A-26 derivatives. Toward the end of the war,
Douglas
developed the AD Skyraider attack plane for the Navy. Like the Dauntless, it
became the Navy workhorse during the Korean War and was still in service during
the Vietnam War.
Douglas
plants also built
3,000 B-17 Flying Fortresses designed by Boeing.
The
end of the war brought an end to the aircraft building boom in
Southern California
. Some 90,000 workers were laid off
within a week. Three
Douglas
plants closed,
and employment dropped from 160,000 to 27,000. "The future is as dark as
the inside of a boot,"
Douglas
is quoted
as saying. Only 127 planes came out of
Douglas
plants in 1946. But military business picked up again, and the 1950s saw
Douglas Aircraft producing the C-124 Globemaster troop transport and
cargo plane for the Air Force, along with several rocket and jet aircraft,
including the A4D Skyhawk bomber, the F4D Skyray delta-wing
fighter and the experimental D-558 Skyrocket.
The
race was also on to build a new generation of commercial transports. At first
it was a two-company competition between
Douglas
and its DC planes and Lockheed Aircraft with its Constellation.
Douglas
was the clear winner. Morrison describes the DC-6B as undoubtedly "the finest, most economical propeller airplane ever
built." Not until Boeing introduced its 707 in the late 1950s did the lead
change hands, but not without a struggle. In 1958, after enormous effort,
Douglas
’s company produced its first commercial jet
airliner, the incomparable DC-8. "The company spent more money
developing the DC-8’s landing gear than it spent developing the
entire DC-3," writes Morrison in describing the challenge faced by
Douglas engineers in designing a quiet, safe jet passenger plane.
Also
during this period, the company formed a Missiles and Space Group and became a
principal subcontractor in the design and development of missiles and launching
equipment. One of its many contracts was for the S-IV upper stage of the Saturn I rocket. Another was for a Manned Orbiting Laboratory. "The
company took part in 58 percent of all
United States
launches and 69
percent of all successful launches of space hardware," writes Morrison.
Douglas
engineers also produced the Zeus and Honest John
missiles.
The
early ‘60s saw Boeing as the dominant building of jet airliners, with its 720, 727, 737 and 747 models. The DC-8 remained extremely
popular, however, as did the first
Douglas
twin-jet, the DC-9, which into service in 1965. The following year
proved catastrophic for the Douglas Company, now run by Douglas’s son,
Donald Jr., although the senior
Douglas
remained board chairman. Despite an enormous backlog of DC-9 and other
orders, the company suffered a 1966 second quarter loss in excess of $3.4
million; its stock plummeted and dividends were suspended. Many factors led to
the financial collapse, but an inability to manage costs headed the list. Up to
$400 million were needed to produce the planes already on order, but potential investors
had lost confidence in Douglas Aircraft management, even after the senior
Douglas
took personal charge of operations.
Facing
bankruptcy,
Douglas
agreed to merge his
company with St. Louis-based McDonnell Aircraft Corp. headed by his friend
James S. McDonnell. The merger was completed in April 1967 and McDonnell
Douglas was formed.
Douglas
was given the
title of honorary chairman. His company had lasted 47 years.
Douglas
remained active in the aerospace
community after his retirement, and was greatly honored during his lifetime.
Among his many awards were
California
Industrialist of the Year, the French Legion of Honor, and the Wright Brothers
Memorial Award.
"He
had always been a superb engineer," writes Morrison, "but he also had
that rare gift of vision, leaving his indelible mark on an industry he helped
to pioneer, and one that created the modern miracle of global air transportation.
To those who knew him well, and they number in the thousands, his integrity as
a human being will always be remembered. They knew him as a man whose word was
his contract, whose friendship was a strong bond – a man who believed in
honor above all else."
Douglas
died on February 1, 1981, at the age
of 88. An enthusiastic sailor throughout his life (he won a silver medal for
sailing in the 1932 Olympic Games in
Los Angeles
),
Douglas had his ashes scattered over the
Pacific Ocean
.
On
August 1, 1997, McDonnell Douglas merged with
Douglas
’s
old rival, Boeing, to form the world’s largest aerospace company.
---
Contributed by Albert Greenstein, 2000
___________________________
Additional
reading: To Ride The Wind: A Biography of Glenn L. Martin, by Henry
Still (1964), Julian Messner, Inc., N.Y.
Sites
to visit in
Southern California
:
Museum of Flying: 2772 Donald Douglas Loop, Santa Monica. Phone: 310-392-8822. (Located on the site where the first DC-3 was built.)
Planes of Fame Museum:
700 Merrill Ave.
,
Chino
Airport,
Chino
(
San Bernardino
County
).
Phone: 909-597-3722.
San Diego
Aerospace
Museum
: 2001
Pan
American
Plaza
,
Balboa
Park
,
San Diego
.
Phone: 619-234-8291.
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