Douglas aircraft company / Former enterprise

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The Douglas aircraft company was an airplane manufacturer. The firm founder Donald Wills Douglas was graduate of the WITH and worked first for the airplane manufacturer Martin. After he was a chief engineer there, he created 1921 the "Douglas company", which was renamed 1928 in "Douglas aircraft company".

Douglas built the famous airplane row "DC", with their most well-known representative DC-3. In addition Douglas built many military aircraft, particularly for the United States Navy.

History

Torpedo bombers made the beginning, in addition observation airplanes came. Within five years the annual production amounted to 100 airplanes. The factory was shifted after Santa Monica and equipped due to the size the office boys with roller skates.

1934 produced Douglas a twin-engine airliner, the DC-2, and starting from 1936 the famous DC-3.

The company grew strongly in the Second World War. Douglas produced from 1942 to 1945 nearly 30,000 airplanes and had 160,000 coworkers. Were built the C-47 (based on the DC-3), the A-20-Bomber and the Dauntless.

After the war and the necessary contraction process Douglas developed further new airplanes, under it 1946 the four-engined DC-6 and 1953 the DC-7. Starting from 1948 also jets were built, first the military jet F3D Skyknight and 1951 the F4D Skyray. At 1958 the production of jet passenger planes began with the DC-8, which with the new Boeing 707 competed.

The company could enter into the productive business with rockets. Douglas began with Luft-Luft-Raketen, built then complete rocket systems (1956 the Nike program) and became late prime contractor of the Skybolt ALBM and the Thor Raketenprogramms. Douglas could akquirieren even orders of NASA, particularly for parts of the Saturn V rocket.

Now the company was a large-scale enterprise, which suffered however from the costs of the DC-8 and the DC-9. 1963 began therefore discussions with the McDonnell aircraft corporation, with which the McDonnell Douglas corporation originated in to 1967.

1997 were finally bought up McDonnell Douglas corporation by Boeing.