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 ...
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 designed to carry payload of equivalent weight.
It was fabric-covered except for the forward
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...
, which was clad in
sheet metal
Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process.
Thicknesses can vary significantly; extremely thin sheets are considered foil (metal), foil or Metal leaf, leaf, and pieces thicker than 6 mm (0.25 ...
. The aircraft was powered by a 400 hp (298 kW)
Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
V-12
piston engine
A reciprocating engine, more often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more Reciprocating motion, reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a Circular motion, rotating motion. This article ...
.
The Cloudster first flew on 24 February 1921, the aircraft broke the Pacific Coast altitude record by climbing 19,160 ft (5839 m) on 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 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 and flew beer to
Tijuana
Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...
, Mexico after the 1926 flood, before it made a forced landing in shallow water off the coast of
Ensenada, Baja California
Ensenada ("inlet") is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the List of cities in Baja California, th ...
in December 1926. It was damaged beyond repair by the tide before it could be recovered.
[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, aerospace and military, defense company based in Southern California. Founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr., it merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell D ...
) 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 except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...
aircraft with a
pusher propeller, 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
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear