Douglas Aircraft Company (Jump to photos)
The Douglas Aircraft Company was founded by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. in July 1921, following dissolution of the Davis-Douglas Company. An early claim to fame was the first circumnavigation of the world by air in Douglas planes in 1924.
It is most famous for the "DC" series of commercial aircraft, including what is often regarded as the most significant transport aircraft ever made: the DC-3, which was also produced as a military transport known as the C-47 Skytrain. Douglas created a wide variety of aircraft for the United States armed forces, the Navy in particular.
The company initially built torpedo bombers for the U.S. Navy, but developed a number of variants on these aircraft including observer aircraft and a commercial airmail variant. Within five years the company was turning out over 100 aircraft annually. Among the early employees at Douglas were Edward Heinemann, James Kindelberger, and John Northrop. The company retained its military market and expanded into amphibians in the late 1920s, also moving its facilities to Santa Monica. The complex in Santa Monica was so large that the mail girls used roller skates to deliver the intra-company mail. By the end of World War II, Douglas had facilities at Santa Monica, CA; El Segundo, CA; Long Beach, CA; Torrance, CA; Tulsa, OK; Midwest City, OK; and Chicago, IL.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Aircraft
