A landmark project, Spirit of Douglas, honouring a legendary commercial aviation pioneer is set to take to the Californian skies this week.
The Spirit of Douglas has been unveiled at one of the world’s top aircraft restoration companies, Aerometal International, Inc., in the United States.
The fully restored DC-3, N8336C, has been named Spirit of Douglas in honour of Donald Douglas Snr, who is considered the father of commercial aviation.
In 1914, Mr Douglas (below) was the first person to be awarded a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering at MIT, completing the four-year course in half the time. After several years with the Glenn Martin Company where he rose to chief engineer at the age of 23, Mr Douglas struck out on his own with the Douglas Aircraft Company and went from employing 22 people to be the fourth-largest business in the US during WWII.
Mr Douglas’s greatest strength, aside from his brilliant aeronautical skills, was his ability to attract and retain some of the greatest engineers of the day and the team that designed the DC-3 was a who’s who of aviation legends.
The DC-3 was the first aircraft that could make money just by carrying passengers thus freeing airlines from government mail contracts. The impact of the DC-3 and its smaller sibling the DC-2 on the world’s economy was immense. In the US, passenger fatality rates plummeted from 1 per 11 million miles in 1936 to 1 per 81 million miles in 1940. Owing to the safety record of the DC-3 and its progenitor, insurers began offering flight insurance in 1937 for the first time.
The Spirit of Douglas will participate in D-Day commemoration events in Europe in mid-2024 before retracing sectors from its past in North America, Asia and India.
N8336C was built in 1942 at Douglas’s Santa Monica plant and it was transferred to the Royal Air Force and used between India and China flying the hump and delivering critical supplies to the Chinese. She then spent time in Asia with Civil Air Transport before serving with Air America conducting government operations. In 1953, she found a new home in Texas with TEMCO before a series of corporate owners including Southern Airways of Atlanta.
Even Hollywood wanted N8336C for the 1994 film Ritchie Rich about the saga of the world’s richest boy played by then-child star Macaulay Culkin.
The Spirit of Douglas project is being funded by a family inspired by history. Its journey throughout 2024 is being captured by award-winning French film-maker Gregory Le Moigne who will produce a documentary telling the story of the history of the DC3, the history of the Spirit of Douglas and the key role of the pioneering and innovative Donald Douglas Snr in connecting people and trade globally.
The documentary is expected to be released in the fullness of time.
