mcdonnell douglas ww11 planes

[sandy]

HI AM NEW MEMBER.MY DAD WAS RONALD SIMEONE..HE BUILT THE PLANES AT MCDONNELL DOUGLAS FOR WW11..DOES ANYONE KNOW HIM ON THE SITE...HE IS DECEASED...MY SON JOSH RYAN IS DOING SCHOOL PAPER ON THE PLANES OF WORLD WAR 11...IS THERE A SITE I CAN GO RIGHT TO ..TO GET THE NAMES OF ALL THE PLANES AND INFO ON THEM..MY COMPUTER IS OLD AND AND SLOW IT TAKES FOREVER TO TO FROM SITE TO SITE...ALSO IF ANYONE AS INFO TO SHARE ON MCDONNELL DOUGLAS BUILT PLANES OR MY DAD PLEASE SEND TO SANDY SIMEONE RYAN AT 13217 WINDYGATE LN. ST,LOUIS, MO. 63146 OR EMAIL [email protected]....THANKS FOR YOUR HELP

[Corsarius]

ALL the planes? That's a pretty big sort of list.

The Great Planes site, of which this forum is part of, is a pretty good listing. Also you can check with GregP who has a mega-listing of just about everything with wings.

[simon]

Hate to seem like I'm splitting hairs again here but...

McDonnel Douglas made no aircraft during WWII, the reason is that the company wasn't formed until the '50s or possibly even the '60s by the merger of McDonnel and Douglas which up untill then were two separate companies.

Greg's database is certainly impressive, but to be honest I don't think any single book or site exists that encompasses every last plane (Although again, Greg's is a good stab at it!) because there were so many prototypes and one-offs that never made production. Even considering just the types that made production there is a huge number. I may know a book that might be useful if you can get ahold of it, I'll e-mail you the ISBN later.

[Corsarius]

There is one book that handles every aircraft ever given the designation 'fighter', even if it has only flown once in prototype form. "The complete book of fighters" by William Green and Gordon Swanborough. ISBN 0861016432.

[GregP]

Hey guys, thanks for the compliment on the database. When I mailed it to Simon and Taglia, it was about 60Mb. It is now up to 75 Mb ... and I really don't believe it will ever be finished! I might well run into the limits of an Excel file, however, so Is uppose I'll HAVE to turn this into a real databse soon. Every time you think you are nearly done, you find another obscure aircraft lurking somehwere. The variety is mind-boggling. I really hadn't realized that so many types of aircraft were developed in so short a time.

Anyway, McDonnell and Douglas merged in 1967. Prior to that time Douglas Aircfaft and McDonnell Aircraft were, indeed, separate entities ... though they had TALKED about a merger since 1938, it didn't happen until 1967.

I made up a Word file with some representative planes in it an emailed it. Hope it helps.

[Bob Buc]

He was at Curtis Wright in St. Louis during WWII.

[r16]

very interesting . Is this why the first two McDonnell navy jets actually got the D letter ?

[Wuzak]

quote:Originally posted by r16

very interesting . Is this why the first two McDonnell navy jets actually got the D letter ?


D?

The Phantom was the FH, the Banshee was the F2H, the Demon was the F3H and the Phantom II was originally the F4H before the Navy and USAAF designations were merged (and it simply became the F-4 Phantom II).


Oh, I see:

quote:The first XF2D-1 took off on its maiden flight at Lambert Field in St. Louis on January 11, 1947. It was powered by two 3000 lb.s.t. Westinghouse J34-WE-22 turbojets. Shortly after its first flight, the XF2D-1 was redesignated XF2H-1 when the factory code for McDonnell changed from D to H. Flight tests and service evaluations went fairly well, but some control problems were encountered which resulted in the decision to replace the dihedral tailplanes of the prototypes with tailplanes without dihedral on production models.

http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f2_1.html

[Wuzak]

Here is an explanation of the system.

http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/Fnavydesig.html

McDonnell's first production contracts were for parts for the Douglas DC-3/C-47. I'm not sure there was any other connection between them in the early days.

Both Douglas and McDonnell started their careers at Martin.

[Bob Buc]

Curtiss Wright made the C-46 Commando in St. Louis and I believe Louisville during WWII.
A history of Curtiss Wright can be found here:
http://www.pilotfriend.com/acft_manu/Curtiss_Wright.htm
ABOUT THE PLANE:
On March 26, 1940, Curtiss-Wright flew the prototype of a 36-seat commercial airliner which had the company designations CW-20. Its large capacity fuselage aroused US Army interest for cargo/transport and casualty evacuation, and a militarized version of the airplane was ordered into production under the designation C-46 and named Commando. When the first airplane of this model entered service in July, 1942, they were the largest and heaviest twin-engine aircraft to serve with the USAAF, and proved such a valuable transport in the Pacific Theater of operations that well over 3,000 Commandos were built before production of the airplane ended. Though overshadowed in fame by the Douglas C-47, the C-46 nevertheless could carry a far greater load. The C-46 was found to have better performance than the C-47 at the altitudes involved in carrying vital supplies over the Himalayas to China from India, after the loss of the "Burma Road". These airplanes made a vital contribution to the success of this airlift of essential war materials into China. In the Pacific the Commando played a significant role in the island-hopping operations which culminated in Japanese surrender. Commandos remained in service with both the USAAF/USAF and the USMC after World War II had ended. The USAF employed C-46s operationally during the Korean War, as well as in the early stages of hostilities in Vietnam, and a very small number of this airplane still remain in service with civilian operators, chiefly freight haulers in Central and South America. The C-46A was powered by two 2,000-hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-51 radial piston engines giving the airplane a maximum speed of 270 mph at 15,000 feet, cruising speed of 173 mph, service ceiling of 24,500 feet, and a range of 3,150 miles at 173 mph.

[r16]

the first Douglas fighter I , myself know is F3D and I would like to see the previous Douglas fighters.

[StLMO10]

My Dad worked there all his life after his WWII service. I worked there as a co-op student as I was getting my engineering degree.

During WWII McDonnell worked mostly as a sub, and also worked on fighter development.

The planes McD turned out were:

F-1 Phantom
F-2 Banshee
F-3 Demon
F-101 Voodoo
F-4 Phantom II
F-15 Eagle (ALMOST named Phantom III)
F-18

Also made the Mercury Capsule. Gemini Capsule, (SHOULD have made the Apollo capsule), MOL Manned Orbital Laboratory, SkyLab, Several helicopters, Harpoon and other missiles.

As I recall, the F-15 is the only fighter in the history of warfare to be undefeated in air-to-air combat.

[Lightning]

Hi StLMO10,



The planes McD turned out were:

F-1 Phantom
F-2 Banshee
F-3 Demon
F-101 Voodoo
F-4 Phantom II
F-15 Eagle (ALMOST named Phantom III)
F-18

Actually the list (of Navy fighters) should read:

FH Phantom
F2H Banshee
F3H Demon
--------------
F4H Phantom II
--------------
--------------

In the U.S. Navy's system, "H" was the manufacturer's designator for McDonnell up until the time the new unified system of designating aircraft regardless of service branch was adopted in the 1960s. At that time, the F4H became the F4. The others had long since left the scene of operational fighters.

Regards,

Lightning

[Lightning]

Hi Sandy,

MY SON JOSH RYAN IS DOING SCHOOL PAPER ON THE PLANES OF WORLD WAR 11...

As Corsarius said, if Josh's paper is to include all the planes of WWII, that is a daunting task indeed. Perhaps it would be more manageable if he were to pick out the major types flown by the various combatants.

He could break his paper down by country, and then by airplane catagory i.e. fighter, bomber, transport, etc. He could then go into as much detail as he wants by catagory i.e. single/twin-engined fighters, light/medium/heavy/very heavy bombers, twin/multi-engined transports, etc. The possibilities are limited only by his time and patience.

However he decides to do it, I would love to see the final result. One thing for sure: He's in for a lot of learning, fun, and--yes--frustration. Just when he thinks he's finished, something new will surface that he will have to deal with.

Best of luck to him; I'm sure he'll do well. (We expect nothing short of an "A". :D)

Regards,

Lightning

[Johnny .45]

As I recall, the F-15 is the only fighter in the history of warfare to be undefeated in air-to-air combat.

Well...the only fighter that's actually FOUGHT and been undefeated, anyway. There are plenty of types that simply never saw any action and so were never defeated! ;)
And if you only count air-to-air, it depends on how you define undefeated.
I don't think that any F-104's were ever shot down in air-to-air combat, if I remember right. I'm pretty sure that they shot down 1 or 2 MiG-21's in foreign service, but I might have that backwards.
They DID run away from a couple of MiG-21's which couldn't keep up with them...but I don't know if that a victory or a defeat!