Round the World, Part 1
The Far Side of the World
September Stories
Daily Life at DAC, Part 1
Flying High
On July 6, 1939, Donald Douglas celebrated 25 years in the aviation industry with a flight in a DC-4 over the Los Angeles basin. At the controls were Carl Cover (pilot on the DC-3's first flight and Douglas' chief pilot) and Jake Moxness (another key member of the DC-3 team). They enjoyed cake and music from Scottish bagpipes, and Don's father, William, (a member of the board of directors of Douglas Aircraft Company) smiled proudly on the scene.
As of that day, Douglas Aircraft Company employed about 8,500 people, and had two plants covering 28 acres. DAC had delivered more than 1,500 airplanes to the military, and more than 1,000 more to customers around the world. In 1937, DAC sold more than 300 airplanes and grossed more than $20 million. The heart of this production was the DC-3.
Three years earlier, on July 1, 1936, Douglas accepted the Collier Trophy for the DC-2, three years to the day since the first flight of the DC-1 in 1933. American had just completed service tests on its first DSTs in July 1936, and on the day Douglas returned from the Collier ceremonies in Washington, he learned that American had flown that same day nonstop from Newark to Chicago and back--nearly 1,500 miles, in 8 hours and 5 minutes. The airline, with this historic flight, unveiled the plans for its nonstop Flagship Service between these cities. Today, American flies dozens of flights between New York and Chicago each day, and no passenger thinks twice about this marvel. But 75 years ago, that capability had just become reality, thanks to the DC-3.
Eleven years later, on July 3, 1947, a young Dell Johnson noted in her stewardesses logbook her day's segments for American in one of its DC-3s, on Air Mail Route 22 to Nashville, with stops at Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky. This particular trip in NC16018 (c/n 1556, since withdrawn from use) took a total of 4 hours and 50 minutes, with Captain Ed Olsen and First Officer Frank Meyers at the helm. She served coffee and tea and beef broth to her passengers. Periodically during the flight, Captain Olsen handed back a Flagship Flight Report handwritten on a blue-bordered sheet of paper, noting their stops and any points of interest along the way, plus the temperature, airspeed, and estimated landing time--what constitutes a general PA given by a captain still today.
Memorial Day: Remembering
It’s Memorial Day weekend...how did we come so far into the year so quickly? The beginning of summer, a time to remember. Memorial Day was established to honor the dead from the American Civil War, and the remembrance has grown to encompass the veterans of every subsequent American conflict. We honor those veterans who served in the C-47 and other military versions of the Douglas DC-3 this weekend, and every day, for their selfless actions and courageous determination.
In 1935, on Memorial Day, the folks from Douglas Aircraft Company were also quietly celebrating the series of new world records set by the DC-1 in an exciting round of flights that commenced on May 16 that year. Early that morning, the Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) ship, flown by Tommy Tomlinson and Joe Bartles, lumbered off the ground in 30 seconds, loaded down with three and a half extra tons of fuel and cargo, from Floyd Bennett Airport in New York. The first record set? A nonstop flight lasting 18 hours and 22 minutes and 49 seconds, covering 5,000 kilometers and averaging a speed of 169.03 miles per hour. They landed only a few hundred miles short of the distance Lindbergh flew in his 3,600-mile flight to Paris just eight years before, in 1927.
While folks back at DAC celebrated, Donald Douglas was in England with his family. He had not been abroad since his days at the naval academy, and he relished the opportunity to show his children Scotland, home of his ancestors. He had been invited to deliver the 23rd Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society on “the progress of the modern Air Liner” [source: “Sky Master: The Story of Donald Douglas,” by Frank Cunningham]. He also was interested in the ways that England planned to streamline its military aircraft production.
Just one year later, the new Douglas Sleeper Transport--the truly “modern Air Liner”--completed its proving tests by American Airlines following its delivery in April 1936.
How did they come so far so quickly?
The sense of time passing feels real, but in each moment of effort the foundation is laid for the next step. Every day at the Douglas Aircraft Company between May 1935 and May 1936 included discussions, drawings, disagreements, erasures, inspirations, and conclusions that led to the final plans for the airplane that changed the world.
