The Douglas Cloudster II was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

prototype five-seat light aircraft of the late 1940s. It was of unusual layout, with two buried piston engines driving a single pusher

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. Only a single example was built, which flew only twice, as it proved too expensive to be commercially viable.

Design and development

During the early 1940s,

Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...

developed a configuration for high-performance twin-engined aircraft, in which the engines were buried in the fuselage, driving propellers mounted behind a conventional tailplane, in order to reduce drag by eliminating drag inducing objects such as engines from the wing. This layout was first demonstrated in the

Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster The Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster was an experimental bomber aircraft, designed for a high top speed. The unconventional approach was to mount the two engines within the fuselage driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers mounted at the tail in a p ...

bomber, which first flew in 1944, showing a 30% reduction in drag compared with a conventional twin-engined layout, while eliminating handling problems due to asymmetric thrust when flying on one engine.Francillon 1979, pp. 372–377. Owing to the initial success of the XB-42, Douglas adopted this promising new layout for a medium-range

airliner An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ...

, 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 July ...

Francillon 1979, pp. 714–715. and a five-seat light aircraft suitable for executive or

air charter Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a airline ticket, ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad h ...

use, the Model 1015 or Cloudster II."Tail-Pusher Plane Cruises 200 M.P.H."
''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (sometimes PM or PopMech) is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do-it-yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation and transportation o ...

'', March 1947, p. 103. The Cloudster II was a low-winged

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

with a retractable nosewheel undercarriage. The pilot and four passengers sat in an enclosed cabin well ahead of the unswept,

laminar flow In fluid dynamics, laminar flow is characterized by fluid particles following smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mi ...

wing. Two air-cooled piston engines were buried in the rear fuselage, driving a single eight foot diameter twin-bladed propeller, mounted behind the

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

via driveshafts taken from

P-39 The Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fighter aircraft, fighter produced by Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was one of the principal American fighters in service when the United States entered combat. The P-39 ...

fighters. Two air intakes forward of the wing directed cooling air to the engines, which then exhausted beneath the fuselage."Douglas numeric, and A thru C."
''Aerofiles''. Retrieved: November 18, 2010.

Operational history

The Cloudster II made its maiden flight on March 12, 1947. Although the aircraft's performance and handling were good, it suffered from excessive vibration, and overheated when it was on the ground. Further development was abandoned late in 1947, with the prototype having flown only twice, as the post-war civil flying market had not developed as hoped, while the selling price had risen from an originally planned $30,000 to $68,000, rendering the aircraft commercially unviable.
''

Flight Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can be a ...

'', August 28, 1947, p. 220.

Specifications

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Francillon, René J. ''McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920''. London: Putnam, 1979. .

External links

{{commons category, Douglas Cloudster II
"5 Passenger Pusher", ''Popular Science'', 1947, p. 35

Photos - Aerofiles
Abandoned civil aircraft projects of the United States Cloudster II 1940s United States civil utility aircraft Twin-engined single-prop pusher aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1947