Douglas' Dream Took Wing in Santa Monica
Santa Monica's Museum of Flying, which depicted aviation history for almost three decades, is history itself now, dispossessed by rising insurance costs. As it circles in search of a new landing site in a rural area, it leaves behind its roots in a seaside community that once welcomed an ambitious designer who transformed air travel.
Much of the heritage of the museum and the adjacent airport--which is staying put, to many of its neighbors' dismay--is intertwined with aviation pioneer Donald Wills Douglas Sr. More than 80 years ago, Douglas Aircraft Co. flew its first plane, ushering Santa Monica into aviation history.
Sprawled over more than 200 acres of now-expensive land a short distance from the beach, Santa Monica Airport began as a dirt strip in a barley field in 1919. Howard Hughes and film director Hal Roach used to tie down there. Douglas' dreams took flight there when it became the home of his aircraft plant.
DC plane construction--The "Then and Now" feature in the Aug. 4 California section said that the DC series of planes, up to and including the DC-10s, were built at Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica. DC models 1 through 7, all propeller-driven aircraft, were built in Santa Monica, and DC models 8 through 10 were built at the Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach.
Douglas, a New York native and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, moved to Los Angeles in 1920 to take advantage of its grand flying weather.
He had already designed a history-making World War I bomber for Glenn L. Martin Co. that had sunk two German warships. Now, he was determined to make it on his own in the airplane business.
With him in a bucket-seat jalopy for the cross-country drive were his wife, two children (the couple eventually had five), a dog and $600 in cash.
Douglas began designing planes in the back room of a barbershop on Pico Boulevard. But times were tough. To help feed his family, he dug up his yard and planted potatoes--which promptly rotted. He resorted to washing cars.
Then a wealthy sportsman, David R. Davis, heard that Douglas was looking for investors. He put up $40,000, hoping to ride to fame on Douglas' wings. It was to be a short-lived partnership.
In 1921, Douglas built his company's first plane, a two-seat, wood and fabric biplane he called the Cloudster. On Feb. 21, it became the first aircraft to get off the ground carrying weight exceeding its own.
That helped attract the Navy's attention. It agreed to pay Douglas $120,000 for three Cloudsters that would be adapted to shoot torpedoes and to land on water. But he needed money to build them. And that's when Davis backed out, apparently because he was tapped out--less than a year after signing on.
