Variants of it continued in use in the Navy for almost 50 years, finally serving in large numbers in a two-seat version as a jet trainer. Designed to operate from the decks of the World War II Essex-class aircraft carriers, the Skyhawk was small, reliable, and tough. Navy's first attack jet, the A4D Skyhawk. The company moved into jet propulsion, producing the F3D Skyknight in 1948 and then the more 'jet age' F4D Skyray in 1951. Douglas continued to develop new aircraft, including the DC-6 in 1946 and the DC-7 in 1953. īoth companies suffered at the end of the war, facing an end of government orders and a surplus of aircraft. The company produced about 10,000 C-47s, a military variant of the Douglas DC-3, from 1942 to 1945. ĭouglas Aircraft profited during World War II. He left Martin in 1938 to try again with his own firm, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, this time based at Lambert Field, outside St.

He worked at three companies, joining Glenn Martin Company in 1933. The economic depression from 1929 ruined his ideas and the company collapsed. McDonnell & Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1926 to produce a personal aircraft for family use. The following year, he bought out his backer and renamed the firm the Douglas Aircraft Company. Douglas F3D Skyknightĭouglas had been chief engineer at Martin before leaving to establish Davis-Douglas Company in early 1920 in Los Angeles.

Both men were of Scottish ancestry, were graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and had worked for the aircraft manufacturer Glenn L. The company was formed from the firms of James Smith McDonnell and Donald Wills Douglas in 1967. Main articles: McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Douglas Aircraft Company

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