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48-472: The Douglas GAM-87 Skybolt ( AGM-48 under the 1963 Tri-service system ) was a hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) developed by the United States during the late 1950s. The basic concept was to allow US strategic bombers to launch their weapons from well outside the range of Soviet defenses, as much as 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from their targets. To do this in an air-launched form,

96-472: A day. This system had a major advantage compared to Polaris, as the aircraft could be sent radio instructions to retarget the missiles before launch. In theory, the bombers could be used as a second-strike weapon, attacking only those targets that had been missed in a first-strike, or alternately, being switched from counterforce to countervalue targets or vice versa. Ground-based systems like Atlas and Polaris lacked this ability, and could only be retargeted with

144-534: A heart as a reference to the Clan Douglas . After the success of the DWC, the company adopted a logo that showed three airplanes circling a globe. The logo eventually evolved into an aircraft, a missile, and a globe. This logo was later adopted by McDonnell Douglas in 1967, and became the basis of Boeing 's current logo after their merger in 1997. Douglas Aircraft designed and built a wide variety of aircraft for

192-684: A lightweight thermonuclear warhead was needed. Initially, the W47 from the Polaris missile was selected, but it was later replaced by the W59 from the Minuteman missile . The UK joined the Skybolt program in 1960, intending to use it on their V bomber force. When the design added a star tracker in addition to its inertial navigation system (INS) this meant that it could only be carried externally where

240-742: A major crisis, an emergency meeting between parties from the US and UK was called, leading to the Nassau agreement . Over the next few days a new plan was hammered out that saw the UK purchase the Polaris SLBM, but equipped with British warheads that lacked the dual-key system. The UK would thus retain its independent deterrent force, although its control passed from the RAF largely to the Royal Navy . The Polaris,

288-671: A much better weapon system for the UK, was a major "scoop" and has been referred to as "almost the bargain of the century". The RAF kept a tactical nuclear capability with the WE.177 which armed V bombers and later the Panavia Tornado force. A B-52G launched the last XGAM-87A missile at the Atlantic Missile Range a day after the program was canceled. In June 1963, the XGAM-87A was redesignated as XAGM-48A. The GAM-87

336-763: A number of aircraft including the C-47 Skytrain, the DB-7 (known as the A-20, Havoc or Boston), the SBD Dauntless dive bomber , and the A-26 Invader . Douglas Aircraft suffered cutbacks at the end of the war, with an end to government aircraft orders and a surplus of aircraft. It was necessary to cut heavily into its workforce, letting go of nearly 100,000 workers. The United States Army Air Forces established 'Project RAND' (Research ANd Development) with

384-616: A program called "World Flight". Donald Douglas proposed a modified Douglas DT to meet the Army's needs. The two-place, open cockpit DT biplane torpedo bomber had previously been produced for the U.S. Navy . The DTs were taken from the assembly lines at the company's manufacturing plants in Rock Island, Illinois , and Dayton, Ohio , to be modified. The modified aircraft known as the Douglas World Cruiser (DWC), also

432-471: A relatively accurate location in order to point their trackers at selected stars. Over a long flight, the INS would drift too much to provide the needed accuracy. Instead, the tracker has to be able to track the stars during flight, continually updating the INS. This change meant that the missile could only be carried in locations where the front of the missile could continually observe the sky. This had always been

480-496: A relatively small fleet of missiles could attack all of them at once. The US had been developing its own ICBMs as well, but early models, like the SM-65 Atlas , required some time to prepare to launch from their surface launchers and were vulnerable to sneak air attack. A carefully timed attack from Soviet bombers against US missiles and their ICBMs against US bomber fields could inflict serious damage. The one weapon system that

528-565: A significant amount of effort. Even the latest Air Force design, the LGM-30 Minuteman , required changes in targeting data to be loaded from magnetic tape in a process that took several weeks. WS-199 was generally successful, but the two ALBMs had a shorter range than desired. The Air Force tendered bids for a longer-range version in early 1959. Douglas Aircraft received the prime contract in May, and in turn subcontracted to Northrop for

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576-529: A wholly owned subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas, with Douglas' son, Donald Wills Douglas Jr. , as president. Later, former McDonnell president David S. Lewis became chairman of Douglas Aircraft. His successful turnaround of the division allowed him to become president of McDonnell Douglas in 1969. Meanwhile, Douglas' space and missiles division became part of a new subsidiary called McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company. McDonnell Douglas later merged with its rival Boeing in 1997. Boeing merged Douglas Aircraft into

624-657: The B-17 Flying Fortress . After the war, Douglas built another Boeing design under license, the B-47 Stratojet turbojet -powered bomber, using a government-owned factory in Marietta, Georgia . World War II was a major boost for Douglas. Douglas ranked fifth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The company produced almost 30,000 aircraft from 1942 to 1945, and its workforce swelled to 160,000. The company produced

672-803: The Boeing Commercial Airplanes division, and retired the Douglas Aircraft name after 76 years. The last Long Beach -built commercial aircraft, the Boeing 717 (third generation version of the Douglas DC-9), ceased production in May 2006. By 2011, the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III was the last aircraft being assembled at the Long Beach facility; the final C-17 was assembled in late 2015. However,

720-594: The Northrop Corporation . The company retained its military market and expanded into amphibian airplanes in the late 1920s, also moving its facilities to Clover Field at Santa Monica, California . The Santa Monica complex was so large, the mail girls used roller skates to deliver the intracompany mail. By the end of World War II, Douglas had facilities at Santa Monica, El Segundo , Long Beach , and Torrance, California , Tulsa and Midwest City , Oklahoma, and Chicago, Illinois . On November 30, 1928,

768-676: The Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets. In 1967, the company was struggling to expand production to meet demand for DC-8 and DC-9 airliners and the A-4 Skyhawk military attack aircraft. The company was also struggling with quality and cash flow problems and DC-10 development costs, as well as shortages due to the Vietnam War . Under the circumstances, Douglas was very receptive to an offer from McDonnell Aircraft Corporation . On April 28, 1967, after almost four years of merger talks,

816-645: The "DC" (Douglas Commercial) series of commercial aircraft, including what is often regarded as the most significant transport aircraft ever made: the Douglas DC-3 , which was also produced as a military transport known as the C-47 Skytrain or "Dakota" in British service. Many Douglas aircraft have long service lives. During World War II , Douglas joined the BVD ( Boeing - Vega -Douglas) consortium to produce

864-481: The British Isles; they were well within the range of Soviet air strikes. The limited land mass available meant it would be relatively easy for missile sites to be spotted no matter what security measures were taken, and flying time for a jet bomber from the coast to any potential inland location would be on the order of minutes. This left the deterrent based on their own bomber force, the V bomber fleet, which

912-798: The North American leg of the flight). After the success of this flight, the Army Air Service ordered six similar aircraft as observation aircraft. The success of the DWC established the Douglas Aircraft Company among the major aircraft companies of the world and led it to adopt the motto "First Around the World – First the World Around". Douglas initially used a logo that combined two letter Ds with two wings extended outwards, and two Ds placed back to back to form

960-448: The RAF had already long concluded would be unable to penetrate Soviet defenses by about 1960. The RAF was in the process of introducing their own stand-off missile, the 950 kilometres (590 mi) ranged Mach 3 Blue Steel . While capable, the missile flew at altitudes and speeds that left it vulnerable to improving SAMs, and it had a number of reliability and serviceability issues that made it less than ideal. A faster, longer-ranged version

1008-660: The RAF. By agreement, British funding for research and development was limited to that required to modify the V bombers to take the missile, but the British were allowed to fit their own warheads. In exchange, the Americans were given nuclear submarine basing facilities in Scotland. Following the agreement, the Blue Streak program was formally canceled in April 1960 and in May 1960 an agreement for an initial order of 100 Skybolts

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1056-488: The U.S. Navy — the straight-winged F3D Skyknight in 1948 and then the more "jet age" style F4D Skyray in 1951. Douglas also made commercial jets, producing the Douglas DC-8 in 1958 to compete with the new Boeing 707 . Douglas was a pioneer in related fields, such as ejection seats , air-to-air missiles , surface-to-air missiles , and air-to-surface missiles , launch rockets, bombs, and bomb racks. The company

1104-546: The U.S. military, including the Navy, Army Air Forces, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The company initially built torpedo bombers for the U.S. Navy, but it developed a number of different versions of these aircraft, including reconnaissance planes and airmail aircraft. Within five years, the company was building about 100 aircraft annually. Among the early employees at Douglas were Ed Heinemann , "Dutch" Kindelberger , Carl Cover , and Jack Northrop , who later founded

1152-542: The Vulcan. Testing started with unpowered drop tests to ensure safe separating from the launch aircraft. Powered tests started in April 1962, but the test series went badly, with the first five trials ending in failure. The first fully successful flight occurred on 19 December 1962. By this point, the value of the Skybolt system in the US had been seriously eroded. The Polaris had recently gone into service, with overall capabilities similar to Skybolt, but with "loiter" times on

1200-556: The case on the USAF's B-52 bombers, where they were carried under the narrow-chord wings and the nose projected out in front. But this presented a problem for some of the UK designs, especially the Victor , where the layout of the wing, engines and landing gear left the mounting point behind the massive wing's leading edge. As Valiant had limited range, the decision was made to move forward only with Vulcan , where its mounting points allowed

1248-467: The company was reorganized as the Douglas Aircraft Company. In 1934, Douglas produced a commercial twin-engined transport plane , the Douglas DC-2 , followed by the famous DC-3 in 1936. The wide range of aircraft produced by Douglas included airliners , light and medium bombers , fighter aircraft , transports, reconnaissance aircraft, and experimental aircraft. The company is most famous for

1296-478: The concepts were two air-launched ballistic missiles, Bold Orion and High Virgo . These systems would give the Air Force a method somewhat similar to the Navy's; in times of high alert, the bomber force would be sent to holding positions far outside the range of any Soviet defenses, and then launch their missiles on command. Using aerial refueling , a bomber might be expected to be able to loiter for as long as

1344-606: The guidance system, Aerojet for the propulsion system, and General Electric for the reentry vehicle. The system was initially known as WS-138A and was given the official name GAM-87 Skybolt in 1960. At the same time, the Royal Air Force (RAF) was having problems with their MRBM missile project, the Blue Streak , which was long overdue. Even if this was successful it faced the serious problem of basing. No fixed land-based missile system could be credibly installed in

1392-454: The main landing gear. During development, it was decided that the system could not reach the required accuracy at the desired range without improvements to the guidance system. This led to the introduction of a star tracker platform that would enhance the existing inertial navigation system . For this role, the system had to be capable of tracking bright stars in direct sunlight, a challenging requirement. Star trackers have to be provided with

1440-519: The nose of the missile to project in front of this aircraft's delta wing . By 1961, several test articles were ready for testing from B-52s, with drop tests starting in January. In January 1961 a Vulcan visited the Douglas plant at Santa Monica, California, to ensure the modifications to the aircraft were electrically compatible with the missile. In Britain, compatibility trials with mockups started on

1488-602: The objective of looking into long-range planning of future weapons. In March 1946, Douglas Aircraft Company was granted the contract to research on intercontinental warfare. Project RAND later become the RAND Corporation . Douglas continued to develop new aircraft, including the successful four-engined Douglas DC-6 (1946) and its last propeller-driven commercial aircraft, the Douglas DC-7 (1953). The company had moved into jet propulsion, producing its first for

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1536-547: The order of months instead of hours. The US Air Force was well into the process of developing the Minuteman missile , whose improved accuracy reduced the need for any bomber attacks. Robert McNamara was particularly opposed to the bomber force and repeatedly stated he felt that the combination of SLBMs and ICBMs would render them useless. He pressed for the cancellation of Skybolt as unnecessary. The British had canceled all other projects to concentrate fully on Skybolt. When McNamara informed them that they were considering canceling

1584-584: The program in November 1962, a firestorm of protest broke out in the House of Commons. Jo Grimond noted "Does not this mark the absolute failure of the policy of the independent deterrent? Is it not the case that everybody else in the world knew this, except the Conservative Party in this country?" President Kennedy officially cancelled the program on 22 December 1962. As the political row grew into

1632-477: The route. The last of these aircraft was delivered to the U.S. Army on March 11, 1924. The four aircraft left Seattle , Washington, on April 6, 1924, flying west, and two of these returned there on 28 September to great acclaim, while one plane had been lost under fog conditions, and another was forced down over the Atlantic and sank (the DWC prototype was then rechristened, and joined the other two in completing

1680-624: The tracker could see the sky. This requirement along with the required ground clearance on takeoff limited it to the Avro Vulcan bomber. Several design decisions in the W47 led the RAF to question its safety, so they intended to use their own Red Snow warheads. This was a heavier warhead and would reduce the range to about 600 miles (970 km), meaning the bombers would have to cross the Soviet coastline to attack Moscow . Testing began in 1962 and

1728-403: The two companies merged as McDonnell Douglas Corporation . The two companies seemed to be a good match for each other. McDonnell was a major defense contractor, but had almost no civilian business. Douglas' commercial contracts would allow McDonnell to withstand any downturns in procurement. Conversely, McDonnell had enough revenue to help solve Douglas' financial problems; soon after the merger

1776-460: Was announced, McDonnell bought 1.5 million shares of Douglas stock to help Douglas meet "immediate financial requirements". The merged company was based at McDonnell's facility in St. Louis, Missouri . It adopted a modified version of Douglas' logo. Donald Wills Douglas Sr. became honorary chairman of the merged company, a post he would hold until his death in 1981. Douglas Aircraft Company continued as

1824-717: Was being talked about, Blue Steel II, but it would be some time before it could enter service. The long-range Skybolt would eliminate the need for both the Blue Streak and the Blue Steel II. Blue Steel II was canceled in December 1959 and the British Cabinet decided in February 1960 to cancel Blue Streak as well. Prime Minister Macmillan met President Eisenhower in March 1960 and agreed to purchase 144 Skybolts for

1872-585: Was concluded. Avro was made an associate contractor to manage the Skybolt program for the United Kingdom and four different schemes were submitted to find a platform for the missile. A number of different aircraft were considered, including a variant of the Vickers VC10 airliner and two of the current V bombers, the Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor . It was decided to use the Vulcan to initially carry two missiles each on hardpoints outboard of

1920-529: Was entirely by inertial platform. The current position was constantly updated from the host aircraft through accurate fixes, meaning that the accuracy of the platform inside the missile was not as critical. B-52s were to carry four missiles, two under each wing on the weapons pylon with a dual launcher adapter with the missiles slightly staggered (inboard missile slightly ahead of the outboard missile). The Vulcan carried two missiles, one each on smaller underwing pylons. Douglas Aircraft Company The company

1968-663: Was founded as the Douglas Company by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. on July 22, 1921, in Santa Monica, California , following dissolution of the Davis-Douglas Company. An early claim to fame was the first circumnavigation of the world by air in Douglas airplanes in 1924. In 1923, the U.S. Army Air Service was interested in carrying out a mission to circumnavigate the Earth for the first time by aircraft ,

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2016-405: Was initially marked by a string of failures. These failures, along with a lack of mission after the successful development of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), led to its cancellation in December 1962. The UK had decided to base its entire 1960s deterrent force on Skybolt, and its cancellation led to a major disagreement between the UK and US, known today as the " Skybolt Crisis ". This

2064-480: Was more worrying to the Air Force than the Soviet arsenal and generated a number of internal reports on how to deal with this threat to their dominance in the strategic field. In response, in 1957 the Air Force began studying solutions to the "Puzzle of Polaris" under the WS-199 program. WS-199 was a grab-bag effort, studying anything that might improve the survivability of the Air Force strike capability. Primary among

2112-491: Was not open to attack was the US Navy 's Polaris missile system. The Polaris equipped submarines could cruise in large areas of the Atlantic or Pacific where the Soviet fleet was unable to find them, and launch their missiles with impunity. If the goal of the nuclear force was to maintain deterrence by ensuring that a counterstrike would be launched, Polaris met this goal in a way the existing Air Force fleet could not. This fact

2160-403: Was powered by a two-stage solid-fuel rocket motor. The missile was fitted with a tailcone to reduce drag while on the pylon, which was ejected shortly after being dropped from the plane. After first stage burnout, the Skybolt coasted for a while before the second stage ignited. First stage control was by eight movable tail fins, while the second stage was equipped with a gimballed nozzle. Guidance

2208-566: Was ready to enter the new missile business during the 1950s. Douglas moved from producing air-to-air rockets and missiles to entire missile systems under the 1956 Nike missile program and became the main contractor for the Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile program and the Thor ballistic missile program. Douglas also earned contracts from NASA, most notably for designing the S-IVB stage of

2256-544: Was resolved by a series of meetings that led to the Royal Navy gaining the UGM-27 Polaris missile and construction of the Resolution -class submarines to launch them. The US Air Force had built up an enormous fleet of strategic bombers during the 1950s, only to see them threatened by the possibility of a surprise attack by Soviet ICBMs . As the US bombers were located at only a small number of air bases,

2304-505: Was the first major project for Jack Northrop who designed the fuel system for the series. After the prototype was delivered in November 1923, upon the successful completion of tests on 19 November, the Army commissioned Douglas to build four production series aircraft. Due to the demanding expedition ahead, spare parts, including 15 extra Liberty L-12 engines, 14 extra sets of pontoons, and enough replacement airframe parts for two more aircraft were chosen. These were sent to airports along

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