Evening star., 1924-08-10
DESIGNER OF AIRPLANE SHARES
IN HONORS FOR World FLIGHT
Donald Douglas Held
Real Genius in Craft
Fashioning.
Has Modest Factory With
20 Workers in
California.

Copyright, 1924. in .: s. and Great Britain
and Canada by North American Newspaper
Alliance. All rights reseryed.)
twenty years ago when the Wright
brothers were tinkering with the
ridiculous contraption that they in
sisted would fly over the sand dunes
of Kitty Hawk. N. c., the best kite
flyer in Brooklyn was young Don
Douglas. He was only d youngster
OF ii then, but his former playmates
still declare that the kites Don Doug
las built would fly higher and steadier
than those of any other youngster on
Long Island. But Don Douglas was
the last boy in the world to brag of
his ALTERNATING ability.
Today, while the limelight of world
publicity is focused on the pilots in
the around -the-world flight, this
former Brooklyn kite flyer is content
TO rest in obScurity at modest air
plane factory in Santa Monica, Calf
He is as modest as when he was max
ing the best kites in Brooklyn.
Shares Flight Honors.
Yet certainly sharing honors with
the indomitable pilots of the famous
flight is the designer of the planes
they fly, Donald Wills Douglas
IL Sll
described as wholly a feat of mid
dle-aged youth" For the average
age of the, leading figures in the re-
markable drama of circling the world
on wings is exactly 81.
There are just two factors in this
miracle of globe girdling-the pilots
and the planes. Much has been writ
ten of the pilots. little is known of
the designer of the planes
Young Donald Douglas secured an
appointment to the United States
Naval Academy at Annapolis after he
mad been graduated from the New
York public schools. But mighty
ships of steel did not appeal to his
imagination. He visioned the supe-
rlority of winged craft even then.
Upon graduation he enrolled in the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
to study aeronautics. In 1914 he was
graduated with the degree of bache-
lor of science. Young Douglas proved
so earnest student at the technical
school that he was asked to remain as
an assistant professor in the science
of aerodynamics, which he did until
1915.
Helped on Martin Bombers.
1t was about that time that Glenn
l.. Martin was having visions of giant
bombing craft carrying tons of bombs.
He enlisted the services of the boy
professor from Massachusetts. AS
chief engineer of the Martin factory
in Los Angeles, young Douglas dem
onStrated such ability that when the
United States entered the war in 1917
ne was selected above all others as
the chief civilian aeronautical engi-
neer of the Signal Corps of the Army.
He was then but 25 years of age.
European airplane designers had
made great progress in those early
years of the war. They wanted Amer
lean planes built after their own
models. Young Douglas believed in
the superiority of American designed ed
air planes. He returned to his post
as chief engineer of the Glenn l.
Martin factory. II was largely his
genius that perfected the giant planes
known as the Martin bombers, that
are today the backbone of the ArmyS
bombing air fleet.
Designed Torpedo Plane.
In 1920 naval aviation officers had
been deeply impressed with the Gre
ative aeronautic genius of young Doug
las. The Navy wanted a torpedo plane.
Douglas was asked to design one. He
promptly organized the Davis Douglas
Company in Los Angeles. From his first
model the Douglas torpedo plane was
an assured success