The Douglas Cloudster was a 1920s
American biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...
aircraft. It was the only product of the
Davis-Douglas Company, and was designed to make the first non-stop flight coast-to-coast across the United States.
Development
The Davis-Douglas Company was formed in July 1920 to enable
Donald Douglas to design and build an aircraft capable of non-stop flight coast-to-coast across the United States.
David R. Davis provided the financing for the company. The resulting aircraft was the Cloudster, a single-bay equal-span biplane of wooden construction. It was fabric-covered except for the forward
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft ...
, which was covered with
sheet metal. The aircraft was powered by a 400 hp (298 kW)
Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
V-12
piston engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common feat ...
.
The Cloudster first flew on 24 February 1921, the aircraft broke the Pacific Coast altitude record by climbing 19,160 ft (5839 m) in 19 March that year, and attempted the coast-to-coast journey in June. The aircraft failed to make a non-stop journey due to engine failure, it had to make a forced landing at
Fort Bliss, Texas
Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...
on 27 June 1921. In 1923, the Cloudster was sold and modified for sightseeing flights, with two additional open cockpits and seats for five passengers replacing one of the fuel tanks. In 1925 it was again sold to
T. Claude Ryan, who had it modified further by adding an enclosed cabin with ten seats, the aircraft became the flagship of Ryan's San Diego–to–Los Angeles airline, one of the first scheduled passenger lines in the country. It was subsequently used by a number of operators before it made a forced landing in shallow water off the coast of
Ensenada, Baja California
Ensenada is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on the Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the third-largest city in Baja California. The ...
in December 1926. It was damaged beyond repair by the tide before it could be recovered, and it flew beer to
Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
, Mexico.
[Taylor 1989, p.773]
Following the failure of the coast-to-coast flight, Davis lost interest and Douglas went on to form the Douglas Company (later the
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 ...
) in July 1921.
1945 Cloudster II
Douglas Aircraft would revive the name in 1945 for a proposed
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
aircraft with a
pusher propeller
In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...
, similar to the
XB-42, as the
Cloudster II.
/ref> The company's last effort in general aviation, it was not a success.
Specifications (Davis-Douglas Cloudster)
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing
*
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{{Douglas aircraft
1920s United States airliners
Cloudster
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1921