Arthur E. Raymond
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Arthur Emmons Raymond (March 24, 1899 in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
– March 22, 1999 in
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
) was an aeronautical engineer who led the team that designed the
DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...
. Raymond grew up in
Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, the son of the owner of a luxury hotel. He completed a B.A. at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, and a M.S. in aeronautical engineering at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
in 1921. Raymond spent his entire career at the Douglas Aircraft Company. Beginning as a metal fitter, he rose to the rank of Chief Engineer, contributing to the design of all Douglas airliners from the
DC-1 The Douglas DC-1 was the first model of the famous American DC (Douglas Commercial) commercial transport aircraft series. Although only one example of the DC-1 was produced, the design was the basis for the DC-2 and DC-3, the latter of which bei ...
to the
DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in Ju ...
. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, he helped managed the huge effort that produced tens of thousands of aircraft for that war. Raymond is best known as the lead designer of the
DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...
, "The Plane That Changed the World," the first airliner that could break even hauling passengers without a government subsidy and without carrying mail. The military equivalent of the DC-3 was the C-47. In Europe, the DC-3 was known as the "Dakota." Raymond's grandson Stephen has said: "In the DC-3, he did almost everything. He knew every bolt and screw in that plane." About 10,600 DC-3s and C-47s were eventually built between 1934 and 1945, making it the most produced airliner of all time. At the time of Raymond's death, about 2,000 DC-3s were still flying and about 400 were still in commercial service. After retiring from Douglas in 1960,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
put Raymond in charge of supervising the outside contractors on Project Gemini and Project Apollo until 1969. When Boeing and other aerospace firms proposed in the late 1960s to build a supersonic airliner with substantial subsidies from the US government, Raymond argued that the plane was not commercially viable. The USA government ceased subsidizing the design of the American
supersonic transport A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupol ...
in 1971, whereupon it died. At the end of World War II, Raymond proposed to the
USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
that they create an organization to think about intercontinental warfare. That organization became the Rand Corporation, of which he was a founding member. He was also a founding member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...
. In 1991 he received the National Air and Space Museum Lifetime Achievement Trophy. He died just two days before his 100th birthday. Stephen Raymond said of his grandfather: "He was always known as the kind of person who spoke truth to power. They depended on him to unearth the things that were wrong from the spinmeisters who were saying everything was dandy."Obituary from ''New York Times''
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References


External links


RAND Corporation history page


{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond, Arthur E. 1899 births 1999 deaths American aerospace engineers Harvard University alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni Founding members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering 20th-century American engineers