DOUGLAS, DONALD W. 1892-1981

PIONEER AIRCRAFT DEVELOPER

Early Years

A student at the U.S. Naval Academy in the early years of the century, Donald W. Douglas was inspired, by a demonstration of airplanes built by the Wright brothers, to transfer to MIT, where he studied aeronautical engineering and served as an instructor in the department. After graduation he joined the Glenn L. Martin Company in California, where he helped in the design and construction of a heavy bomber.

Cloudster

Douglas used his professional training and his skill at raising money to move rapidly into and upward in the aircraft industry. In 1920 he set up an office in a Los Angeles barbershop, and, with $40,000 in backing from sportsman David Davis, developed the Cloudster, a plane designed to fly across the country. The aircraft never actually achieved its goal, but it was the first plane in history able to carry a load that exceeded its own weight.

Douglas Aircraft

Bolstered by some navy contracts, Douglas incorporated his Douglas Aircraft Company in 1928. A few years later he made history with the DC-3, which was designed for the commercial airlines and represented a breakthrough in aircraft design. It was an airline workhorse for a decade or more and in its military version, the C-54, was a staple of the air force during World War II. Like the Model A Ford, Douglas's DC-3 seemed to go on forever and still flies in various parts of the world.

Sources:

Henry Ladd Smith, Airways (New York: Knopf, 1942);

Arch Whitehouse, The Sky's the Limit: History of U.S. Airlines (New York: Macmillan, 1971).