Douglas Aircraft Company was an American manufacturer of airliners, military aircraft and aerospace systems. Donald W. Douglas incorporated the business in 1921 after an earlier partnership with David Davis. Its commercial transports and military production made it a major Southern Californian industrial enterprise before its 1967 merger with McDonnell.[1]
Establishment and early contracts
The Davis-Douglas partnership built the Cloudster for an attempted nonstop transcontinental flight. After Davis withdrew, Douglas established his own company and obtained naval torpedo-bomber work. The DT family provided a foundation for the Douglas World Cruiser, built for the Army's 1924 flight around the world. That expedition gave the manufacturer international visibility, and the image of aircraft circling a globe became part of its corporate identity. Military contracts helped sustain the business through the Depression before civil transports assumed greater prominence.[1][2]
Airliners and wartime expansion
The DC-3 commercial airliner supplied the basis for Douglas's C-47 military transport. The Army Air Corps ordered its first C-47s in 1940 and procured more than 9,000 by the end of the Second World War. They carried personnel and cargo, towed gliders, dropped paratroopers and evacuated casualties. The transport remained useful after the war, including during the Berlin Airlift and Korean War.[3] Douglas continued developing piston-engined airliners and entered jet transport with the DC-8 and shorter-range DC-9, maintaining civil production alongside military work.[1]
Combat aircraft and merger
Douglas combat designs included the SBD Dauntless, A-20 Havoc, A-1 Skyraider and A-4 Skyhawk. Chief designer Ed Heinemann was closely associated with this sequence of attack aircraft. The lightweight Skyhawk first flew in 1954 and found customers beyond the United States. Douglas also participated in missile and launch-vehicle development. The merger with McDonnell in April 1967 brought these activities into McDonnell Douglas, where the Douglas transport lineage continued. The DC-10 consequently belonged to the combined company's era rather than the independent firm's production history.[2][1]