The year is 1957, and the jet age is in full swing. Jet fighter protypes fill the skies at a rate of three or four per year. The Boeing 707 will make its first flight and enter service with Pan Am within a year, and the Douglas DC-8 and Convair 880/990 will not be far behind. The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation is right in the thick of it with its successful F-101 Voodoo interceptor and the equally impressive Banshee and Demon fighters for the Navy. And its iconic F-4 Phantom is on the drawing boards.

In this heady environment, founder James McDonnell and his board of directors decide to pursue a military contract for a jet-powered utility/cargo aircraft. Up until this time, McDonnell (the merger with Douglas would come many years later) had restricted its efforts to jet fighters and missiles. However, since the jet technology was spinning off from military projects, it seemed if not a sure bet, then one it could afford to take, at least. 

The McDonnell 119 was an elegant design with deeply swept wings and tail surfaces, four engines in separate pods under the wings, and a roomy cockpit with a large greenhouse. The prototype had a service ceiling of 45,000 feet, a max range of 2,500 miles, and a maximum speed of around 490 knots. The cabin was designed for 10 passengers in a luxury configuration or 29 in three-abreast seating. Its first flight occurred in early 1959, and the aircraft’s performance and handling qualities met or exceeded all expectations. And the aircraft had a distinctive appearance, more like a fighter bomber than a business jet.  

Unfortunately, the winner of the Air Force UCX (Utility-Cargo-Experimental) competition was the Lockheed Jetstar of “Goldfinger” movie stardom. The reason for the selection was likely a bit complicated. However, it is thought that the underslung engines on the McDonnell 119 might have been considered too vulnerable to FOD ingestion.  

Undaunted, McDonnell repackaged the 119 as the McDonnell 220 and went after the civilian market. The newly christened 220 earned its Federal Aviation Type Certificate in October of 1960, making it the “first certified business jet.” A glamorous marketing video, available today on YouTube, extolled the virtues of a large stand-up cabin and coast-to-coast range. Included is a novel air jet system below the inlets to break up the vortices that develop and lift foreign objects into the engines. While a deal with Pan American seemed to be in the offing, it was not to be, and it appeared the McDonnell 119/220 was headed toward the scrapyard, the usual destination of failed prototypes. 

However, this is where the story gets interesting. McDonnell decided to utilize the 220 for several years as a corporate transport, where it excelled. However, around the time McDonnell merged with Douglas Aircraft, the 220 was deemed excess. Next stop was the Flight Safety Foundation for crash survivability research, which it survived intact, another miracle. By the mid-’70s, the 220 was stripped and painted for a new owner. And while the Jetstar had its James Bond moment, rumors abound that the McDonnell 220 prototype had a brief but exciting career in covert South American operations. 

And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story. If you fly to the El Paso International Airport, you may find the McDonnel119/220 prototype parked on the general aviation ramp, waiting for its new owner. So, just maybe someone will step up and get this incredible airplane on display or, even better, back in the air where it belongs!

The post The McDonnell 119/220: The First BizJet appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

Back in 1929, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) inaugurated the first coast-to-coast air service by combining both rail and air travel. Passengers boarded the train in New York’s Grand Central Station, traveled on to Ohio and then boarded a Ford Trimotor for the daytime flight to Oklahoma. At nightfall, they were back on the train, in sleeper service, to Clovis, New Mexico, where they again boarded a Trimotor for the rest of the trip to California. Two trains, nine flights and 48 hours coast to coast.

By 1933, the Douglas Aircraft Company had a bonafide success on its hands. The new Douglas DC-2 was a truly modern, 14-seat, narrow-body airliner that offered inflight comfort and amenities that other competitors, such as the Boeing 247, did not provide. With its dual nose-mounted landing lights, slab-sided narrow fuselage, angular vertical tail and reliable Wright Cyclone engines, it sold nearly 200 aircraft, over double its nearest rival. It even made money. However, the dream of true transcontinental air travel persisted, and American Airlines CEO C.R. Smith had a better idea.

In what has been described as a “marathon phone call” to Donald Douglas, Smith laid out a requirement for a derivative of the DC-2 that accommodated passengers in fold-down sleeper berths, as well as convertible daytime sleeper seats. This required a much larger cabin diameter to accommodate the upper and lower berths, as well as larger wings, engines and tail surfaces. With his company doing all it could to keep up with DC-2 orders, Douglas resisted the idea, but once American placed a firm order for 20 Douglas Sleeper Transports, the work began in earnest.

The Douglas Sleeper Transport was designed to cross the country in less than 20 hours with three stops. Fourteen passengers were accommodated in comfortable seats that the cabin crew reconfigured at night to provide upper and lower berths.

Crew changed, aircraft were refueled, but the passengers continued to the destination with little disturbance. The first DST flew on Dec. 17, 1935 (the 32nd anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight), and soon entered service. DSTs, by the way, were easily identified by a second row of four small rectangular windows on each side of the fuselage, located above the normal cabin windows. These allowed the upper berths a scenic view outside the aircraft.

The first seven aircraft off the line were DSTs, christened Flagship SkySleepers. While the accommodations were luxurious, the concept never really caught on, and DST production ended in 1940.

This is where the story takes a big turn. The eighth aircraft of the line was actually the first DC-3. Configured to seat 21, the DC-3 became an instant hit based on the economics of more, cheaper seats combined with the plane’s already voluminous interior space. Douglas would see nearly 16,000 DC-3/C- 47 variants in the U.S. and under license overseas. These included 500 Japanese L2D variants, built initially under license, from 1939 to 1945, and nearly 5,000 Soviet Li-2 licensed variants produced through 1952.

Smith’s requirement for a sleeper version of the DC-2 led to the development of a legendary plane. With a cabin nearly a third wider and with much greater interior volume, this was the aircraft that made revenue for the airlines, won wars and became a legend. While the DST concept quickly faded, replaced by multi-class seating and lie-flat seats, the DC-3 became a part of aviation lore. But it hasn’t faded away. Nearly 200 Douglas DC-3s remain in service today, a fitting tribute to Donald Douglas’ outstanding design, C.R. Smith’s persistence, and a big helping of good old-fashioned luck. PP

The post This Incredible Plane: The Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST) “€˜SkySleeper‘ appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.