Talk:Douglas Aircraft Company

Merge

I ran into EA-3B on new article patrol, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Is there enough there for a valid stub, or should it just be merged somewhere else? --Elonka 21:31, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

It should be merged, or simply redirected to A-3 Skywarrior. Thanks for checking. -Will Beback 23:32, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Done. -Will Beback 02:04, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Douglas-logo.gif

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BetacommandBot (talk) 07:45, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

• Fair Use rationale added to image page. -Fnlayson (talk) 15:55, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Pre-War

1. The DC-3 was the first airplane that could carry a payload that weighed as much as the airplane. The DC-3 was made from steel except that its wings were covered with canvas painted to match the rest of the plane.

2. The El Segundo building was so long that the mail girls used roller skates to deliver the intra-company mail. not the Santa Monica facility. The latter was a collection of hangars and offices that were built at different times. Btm1 (talk) 01:00, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Post-war

Douglas continued to develop new aircraft, including the successful four-engined DC-6 (1946) and its last prop-driven commercial aircraft, the DC-7 (1953). [The last version, the DC-7C, was also known as "seven seas" for its extensive non-stop range.  Its only competition was the graceful 3-tail Lockheed Constellation, but its production was dwarfed by that of the DC-7.] The company had moved into jet propulsion, producing its first for the military — the straight wing F3D Skyknight in 1948 and then the more 'jet age' F4D Skyray in 1951. Douglas also made commercial jets, producing the DC-8 in 1958 to compete with the new Boeing 707. [The sales success of the DC-7C caused Douglas to proceed slowly in development of its first jet airliner, the DC-8.  In the meantime, Boeing got a boost by producing a jet tanker aircraft under Air Force contract, which reduced Boeing's cost for the commercial transport 707 version.  Most of its airline customers purchased Boeing 707's rather than wait for Douglas, and it never caught up in sales.  Douglas was first with the shorter range short distance jet liner, the DC-9.  Douglas designers kept the traditional length to diameter ratio for the two-engine DC-9.  Boeing followed with its own two-engine short range jet liner, the 737, but it kept the same fuselage diameter as in its earlier 4 engine 707 and 3-engine 727. The wider fuselage allowed rows of 3 seats on each side of the aisle, while the DC-9 has 2 seats on one side and three on the other.  Passengers apparently preferred the wider fuselage. The Boeing aircraft also shared cockpit design of the 707, which made pilot training simpler. All of this prevented Douglas from regaining primacy in the commercial airliner business.   

Douglas also had problems getting more Navy aircraft contracts.  The jets it produced for the Navy were all subsonic designs, but it was now the era of supersonic aircraft.  There was also a company rumor (unsubstantiated) that an influential Navy official had a personal infidelity issue with Donald Douglas, Jr., who had succeeded his father as head of the company.]

Douglas was a pioneer in related fields, such as ejection seats, air-to-air, surface-to-air, and air-to-surface missiles, launch vehicles, bombs and bomb racks. Douglas was eager to enter the new missile business in the 1950s. Douglas moved from producing air-to-air rockets and missiles to entire [integrated missile systems as a major subcontractor to AT&T under the several Nike programs that started in 1956 and continued through the Nike Hercules and anti-ballistic missile Nike Zeus, which never got beyond development and testing. Douglas also became the main contractor of the Genie nuclear armed air-to-air missile for a poorly conceived mission of destroying an entire squadron of attacking bombers with one Genie burst.], the Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile program and the Thor [intermediate range] ballistic missile [(IRBM)] program. Douglas also earned contracts from NASA, notably for designing the S-IVB stage of the Saturn V heavy-lift rocket. [Also, Douglas converted an empty S-IVB into NASA's "Skylab" and its engineers were involved in what to do following the failure of one of the solar panel arrays to unfurl.]Btm1 (talk) 01:24, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Mergers

In 1967, the company was struggling to expand production to meet demand for DC-8 and DC-9 airliners and the A-4 Skyhawk military attack aircraft. Quality and cash flow problems, DC-10 development costs, combined with shortages due to the Vietnam War, led Douglas to agree to a merger with McDonnell Aircraft Corporation to form McDonnell Douglas. Douglas Aircraft Company continued as a wholly owned subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas, but its space and missiles division became part of a new subsidiary called McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company. [Although called a merger, in reality McDonnell executives were in total control of the combined company.]

[Just as Donald Douglas, Sr., had turned over Douglas Aircraft to his son, Donald Douglas, Jr., James Smith "Mac" McDonnell turned over control to younger relatives. With declining military and NASA business, and younger McDonnell's having no success keeping the McDonnell Douglas profitable, the Board of Directors in Sept. 1994 went outside the family and elected Harry C. Stonecipher (who had a history of improving the performances of GeneralElectric's aircraft engines division and Sundstrand, maker of technology-based products for aerospace and industrial markets) president and chief executive officer of McDonnell Douglas. Two years after joining McDonell Douglas and raising its stock value, its Board of Directors authorized Stonecipher to negotiate a merger with rival Boeing. Stonecypher emerged as the president and CFO of the merged company.] McDonnell Douglas merged into Boeing in 1997.\[13] Boeing combined the Douglas Aircraft Company with the Boeing Commercial Airplanes division, ending more than 75 years of Douglas Aircraft Company history. The last Long Beach-built commercial aircraft, the Boeing 717 (a third generation version of the Douglas DC-9), ceased production in May 2006. In 2011, the C-17 Globemaster III is the last aircraft being assembled at the Long Beach facility.Btm1 (talk) 02:09, 13 September 2013 (UTC)