By:
Norm Goyer
Douglas Aircraft is a true Southern California Company, like Lockheed, Consolidated, Vultee, North American, Ryan and many others, not so well known.
The O-46 was one of a series of high-wing, parasol, observation aircraft built by Douglas for the US Army.
Douglas was very well known, due its many outstanding airplane like the Douglas DC-3. This aircraft set the standard for early airline transportation. In addition, Douglas had a large number of military aircraft which helped our Army Air Force and Navy dominate the air war. The Navy depended on the Douglas Devastator torpedo bomber and the Douglas Dauntless dive bomber; while the Army
depended on the C-47 and the four-engine C-54 (DC-4). These aircraft helped win the war. Douglas also had some early interesting designs which showed the advanced designs this company was known for.
The first military aircraft built by Douglas was the DT-1, Navy bomber, shown taking off from the Langley.
I was an aircraft nut from six years old on, I lived and breathed airplanes, would stare into the sky for hours, would beg my dad to take me to the airport, any airport, and he did. He took me to see Jimmy Doolittle test fly the Gee Bee racer in Chicopee, Massachusetts, he took me to LaFleur Airport in Northampton, my home town, where I met and flew with Ruth Nichols, drooled over
a Seversky P-35 from Selfridge Field, Michigan, which a pilot had flown in to visit his girlfriend at Smith College. I haunted the airport.
The most famous Douglas of all was the DC-3. This photo shows the DC-2 which preceded the DC-3.
My first close encounter with an early Douglas aircraft was on a trip to Malone, New York, in my dad’s 1937 Buick demonstrator. As we drove along the two lane country roads near the Canadian border, I spotted a number of high-wing military planes tied down at the Malone Airport. Sure enough, my dad drove into the airport and parked near the Army Air Force Reserve Observation Squadron based there. The planes were huge with a parasol wing and large canopied cockpits. They were the most beautiful airplanes I had ever seen. They were Douglas O-46 Observation aircraft, one of series of parasol aircraft that Douglas produced during the mid 1930s. Reserve military guys are very laid back, and when they saw the gleam in my eye, they went all out. One sergeant lifted me into the cockpit, another took pictures with my dad’s camera. I was hooked. After we had visited my grandmother, we returned home and I built models of the O-46 and took pictures to show and tell. What an experience that was for an 11 year old
airplane nut.
The Douglas TBDÂ Devastator was a torpedo bomber which saw heavy service during the early years of the Pacific Theatre.
Douglas spent his early years working with the Martin Aircraft Company, but from the very beginning Donald Douglas wanted to launch his own company, but needed money. He looked to friend Bill Henry for help. This time Douglas had the
expectation of payment from the Navy for work in progress on the DT bomber, Henry helped arrange for the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Harry Chandler, to guarantee a $15,000 loan to Douglas. Douglas also got a $5,000 loan from his father. The company incorporated as the Douglas Company in July 1921. Its first plane, the DT-1, was delivered late in 1921. The folding-wing DT bomber used a welded-steel fuselage with aluminum and fabric coverings. Initially able to seat only one person, the second and third bombers were built to hold a crew of two. Other modifications were made as well, including a change to a more powerful Liberty engine. The first production DT-2 was accepted by the Navy on October 19, 1922. Douglas built about 45 bombers and the Dayton-Wright Company and Naval Aircraft Factory together built another 50 under license. The DT-2 also was the first Douglas aircraft constructed under license by a foreign manufacturer, the Norwegian government, and later by Peru’s navy. Douglas Aircraft was on its way.
Then Douglas designed and built the World Cruiser, their most famous early aircraft, whose claim to
fame was the first circumnavigation of the world by air in 1924. The four DWC expedition aircraft, named Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, and Seattle, departed Seattle on April 4, 1924, for an expedition around the world. The ‘Seattle’ crashed into
a mountain in Alaska on April 30. The other three aircraft continued on through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, relying on a carefully planned logistics system, including pre-positioned spare engines, to keep the aircraft flying. The Boston was
forced down while crossing the Atlantic and damaged beyond repair. The remaining two aircraft continued across the Atlantic back to the United States, where they were joined by the prototype DWC aircraft, now christened Boston II. The aircraft returned to their Seattle starting point on September 28, 1924, 23, 942 nm and 175 days since departing. Douglas aircraft were now in the world’s record books.
Douglas also designed and manufactured the TBD torpedo bomber for the Navy and followed that with the famous Douglas SBD dive bomber which was the Navy’s mainstay. in the early years of the war. In 1934,Douglas produced a commercial twin-engined transport, the DC-2, following it with the famous DC-3 in 1936.Douglas produced a wide range of aircraft, included airliners, light and medium bombers, fighters, transports, observation aircraft, and experimental aircraft. During World War II, Douglas designed and manufactured hundreds of Douglas Boston twin-engine bombers and the larger Douglas A-26 bomber. This aircraft was one of the few aircraft that fought in World II, Korea and Vietnam. When you add in the C-47 (DC-3) and the C-54 (DC-4), many thousands of Douglas aircraft helped win the war in both the European and Pacific Theatres. In addition, the Douglas factories in SoCal employed thousands of workers, some for several generations. In 1967, McDonnell purchased part of Douglas to become McDonnell-Douglas. Years later Boeing purchased McDonnell-Douglas. The last true Douglas aircraft is the C-17, designed and built in Long Beach, California, and now fighting for our country in Iraq and Afghanistan, Douglas, a great American aircraft name.
My friend and neighbor, Ray Westmoreland, retired from Douglas many years ago as did his dad before him. Ray told me that Douglas was an outstanding place to work, the bosses’ door was alwas open to any employee.
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