Model Aircrafts and Ships

February 01 1981 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American aircraft manufacturer died (b. 1892)

Douglas Wills Douglas, Sr. was born on the 6^th of April 1892 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the second son of an assistant cashier of the National Park Bank. He started his education at Trinity Chapel School in New York City. At the age of 17, he entered the US Naval Academy where he spent much of his time building and testing model airplanes but in 1912 he left the Naval Academy and look for aeronautical engineering works.

Donald Wills Douglas, Sr.

Donald Douglas later realized that he needed to learn more about it and so he completed a four-year bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in only two years and he was immediately hired as an assistant professor in aeronautics in MIT due to his academic performance.

Work History:

1915 – Consultant to the Connecticut Aircraft Co.

August 1915 – Joined Glenn L. Martin Co. as chief engineer.

1916 – Served briefly as chief civilian aeronautical engineer for the Army Signal Corps Aviation Section in Washington, D.C.
- Chief Engineer in charge of building the MB-1 twin-engine bomber for the US Army.

1920 – He worked as a laborer, hoeing potatoes, and washing cars.
- Davis-Douglas Co. was formed

1921 – Davis lost interest and sold out the company to Douglas and the Douglas Co. was founded.

The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer. It was founded in July 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. The Company was most famous for their Douglas Commercial much known as the DC series of commercial aircraft which includes the DC-3, a transport aircraft where the C-47 Skytrain was developed from.

Douglas DC-3

In 1967, due to quality and cash flow problems plus the combined shortages due to the Vietnam War, Douglas agrees to a merger with McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and form the McDonnell Douglas. In 1997, the McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing.

Some Aircrafts built by Douglas Aircraft Company:

TBD-1 Devastator

A Torpedo Bomber used by the United States Navy.

A-26 Invader

A-1H Skyraider

It was an attack aircraft used by the US Navy.

Douglas DC-6B

It was a piston-powered airliner and transport aircraft.

C-124 Globemaster

A-4 Skyhawk

It was an attack aircraft used by the US Navy.

“It was a trauma and a great loss.”

Pacoima Junior High School after the Crash

On the 31^st January 1957, on the final functional test flight of the new airliner Douglas DC-7B (N8210H) aircraft before it was delivered to Continental Airlines and Northrop F-89D Scorpion on a similar test flight took off. Both performed their individual tests at an altitude of 25,000 feet in clear skies over the San Fernando Valley when a high-speed, near head on midair collision occurred.

Douglas DC-7B: American Airlines

The Douglas DC-7B was a variant of DC-7, an airliner/transport aircraft. The DC-7 and DC-7B was identical except for the increased fuel capacity in extended engine nacelles that extended the flight range of the later variant.

Northrop F-89D Scorpion

The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was a jet powered all weather interceptors. Its variant F-89D was the main production version with removed cannon and new Hughes E-6 fire control system with AN/APG-40 radar and an AN/APA-84 computer.

The midair collision results to the loss of all the Douglas DC-7B crew, 1 of 2 occupants of F-89D, and 3 junior high school students on the ground. The Douglas DC-7B crews are the pilot William Carr, 36; co-pilot Archie R. Twitchell, 50, a veteran flier and a part-time actor and appeared in over 70 films which include “I Wanted Wings” and “Among the Living”; the flight engineer Waldo B. Adams, 42; and the radio operator Roy Nakazama, 29. And the three dead boys are Ronnie Brann, Bob Zallan, and Evan Elsner.

The probable cause of the crash was said to be the high rate of near head on closure at high altitude, together with physiological limitations that resulted in a minimum avoidance opportunity during which the pilots didn’t see each other’s aircraft.

The midair collision and the outrage over the deaths led to the construction of a hospital in Pacoima and a ban on military operations over the Valley.

George Herbert Walker Bush was born on the 12^th of June 1924 in their Victorian house in Massachusetts to Senator Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. He began his formal education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich where his family moved shortly after his birth.

In 1936, he attended Phillips Academy and there he held a large number of leadership positions which includes being the captain of both the varsity baseball and soccer teams.

In June 1942 after graduating from Phillips Academy, he joined the US Navy and became a naval aviator on his 18^th birthday. On the 9^th of June 1943, he was commissioned and ensign in the US Naval Reserve at Corpus Christi, Texas and it made him the youngest naval aviator to that date. He piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger on one of his mission. In September 1945, he was honorably discharged from the service and he then entered Yale University.

TBF (TMB) Avenger

Soon after graduating from Yale University he became involved in politics. On the 3^rd of January 1967 to 1971 he was a member of the US House of Representatives from 7^th District of Texas. In 1971 to 1973, he became the 10^th US Ambassador to the United Nations. On the 30^th of January 1976, he became the 11^th Director of Central Intelligence Agency. On the 20^th of January 1981, he became the 43^rd Vice President of the United States with Ronald Reagan as the President. And on the 20^th of January 1989 he became the 41^st President of the United States with Dan Quayle as his Vice President.

CIA, Vice President, President Plaques

After his term, he retired to be with his wife at their home in Houston with a presidential office nearby. Since 1992, he made many public appearances and even more when his son became the President.

He was awarded the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award by former First Lady Nancy Reagan. And in 1993, he was awarded an honorary knighthood (GCB) by Queen Elizabeth II.

He was also present on various ceremonies during the construction of the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), the last Nimitz class supercarrier of the US Navy that was named after him.

USS George H. W. Bush CVN-77

January 30 1862 - The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.

USS Monitor: The First Ironclad Warship

The USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the US Navy. It was ordered on the 4^th of October 1861 by the US Navy. It was launched on the 30^th of January 1862 and commissioned on the 25^th of February 1862.

The USS Monitor was most famous for her participation in the first ever naval battle between two ironclad warships on the 9^th of March 1862. It was the first in a long line of Monitor class warships of the United States and the term monitor describes a broad class of European harbor defense craft.

The USS Monitor has a displacement of 987 tons; length of 172 feet; beam of 41 feet and 6 inches; draught of 10 feet and 6 inches; speed of 8 knots; and armed with two 11 inches Dahlgren smoothbores.

The USS Monitor was well suited for river combat and it features made her highly unseaworthy in rough waters which led to its early loss when it encountered a heavy storm. She was swamped by high waves while under tow by Rhode Island. On the 31^st of December 1862 it sank in the Atlantic Ocean and 16 out of its 62 crewmen were lost in the storm.

Check out USS Monitor Model Ship at http://www.warplanes.com/

January 29 1944 – USS Missouri the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy is launched.

USS Missouri Battleship

The USS Missouri (BB-63) was also known as the Mighty Mo or Big Mo. It was a US Navy battleship and the third ship of the US Navy to be named in honor of the US state of Missouri.

The USS Missouri was the last battleship built by the United States. It was ordered on the 12^th of June 1940 and laid down on the 6^th of January 1941. On the 29^th of January 1944, the Missouri was launched at New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn, New York and commissioned on the 11^th of June. It was the third of the Iowa class but the fourth and final battleship commissioned by the US.

The USS Missouri (BB-63) has the length of 887 feet and 2 inches; beam of 108 feet and 2 inches; draft of 28 feet and 9 inches; and displacement of 45,000 tons. It was armed with (1943) nine 16-inch/50 caliber Mark 7 guns; twenty 5-inch/38 caliber Mark 12 guns; eighty 40mm/70 caliber anti-aircraft guns; and forty-nine 20mm/70 calibers anti aircraft guns.

USS Missiouri: US Navy

The USS Missouri was best known as the site where General Douglas MacArthur officially accepted the surrender of Japan which ends the Second World War on the 2^nd of September 1945.

The USS Missouri was decommissioned on the 31^st of March 1992 at Long Beach, California. It remained part of the reserve fleet until January 12, 1995 when it was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. On the 4^th of May 1998 a donation contract was signed and the historic battleship was said to be transferred to the nonprofit USS Missouri Memorial Association (MMA). And on the 23^rd of May she was towed from Bremerton to the Port of Astoria, Oregon for cleaning and then towed across the eastern Pacific and docked at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor on the 22^nd of June. And on the 29^th of January 199, she was opened as a museum operated by the MMA.

Check out USS Missouri Model Ship at http://www.warplanes.com/

Francis Stanley “Gabby” Gabreski: Top American Fighter Ace

January 28 1919 – Francis Gabreski, American fighter pilot.

Francis Stanley “Gabby” Gabreski

Francis Stanley “Gabby” Gabreski was born today, 28^th of January 1919. He was the top American fighter ace in Europe during the Second World War, a jet fighter ace in Korea, and a career officer in the US Air Force with more than 26 years in the service.

Curtiss P-40 AVG Flying Tiger

Spitfire Mk IX

During his Royal Air Force (RAF) duty, he flew the new Spitfire Mark IX. And Gabreski learned during his duty with RAF that he had to keep calm during a mission. In his career with US Air Force, he became the commander of his former unit, the 56^th Fighter Group and he flew F-80 Shooting Stars.

Gabreski died on the 31^st of January 2002 of an apparent heart attack. He is buried in Calverton National Cemetery along with his wife Kay.

Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk: The First Astronaut of Ukraine

January 28 1951 – Leonid Kadenyuk, Ukrainian cosmonaut.

Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk

Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk was the first and only astronaut of independent Ukraine as of 2005. He holds the rank of Ukrainian Air Force Major General. He has been a career Soviet military pilot and cosmonaut since 1976. He started his service with the Soviet Air Force and later with the Cosmonaut Group. He remained in the Russian Space Forces and adopted Russian citizenship due to the break-up of the Soviet Union.

STS-87Mission

In 1995, he returned to his homeland and volunteered to take part of the first Ukrainian space mission. In 1997, he made his flight on NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia as part of the international mission STS-87. The mission duration was 15 days, 16 hours, 35 minutes, and 01 seconds.

Space Shuttle Columbia

January 28 1946 - Bluenose, Canada's greatest sailing ship, founders on a Haitian reef.

The Bluenose was a Canadian schooner from Nova Scotia. It was launched on the 26^th of March 1921. It was a celebrated racing ship and a symbol of the province. It was financed by Captain Angus Walters and four Halifax businessmen.

The Bluenose soon proved that she is an excellent sailing vessel as she cleverly won the 1921 Canadian trials over seven other competing schooners. Another two races were held in late October and both were won by the Bluenose and she brings the International Fishermen’s Trophy back home.

Bluenose