falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5707 posts, RR: 29 Posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 8862 times:
I was at an antique shop, in St. Louis, today and spotted this cool print of a McDonnell Douglas four engine turbo prop. Obviously they never built this thing, but what would it have been called and how far along in the design process did it get? It is a neat looking plane and appears to be rather large.
mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9273 posts, RR: 13 Reply 1, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 8808 times:
Wonder if it could have been derived from the C-133
falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5707 posts, RR: 29 Reply 2, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 8758 times:
Quoting mayor (Reply 1): Wonder if it could have been derived from the C-133
looks similar, but those went out of production in 61 or so and McDD didn't come together until '67. I wonder if McDD thought about reopening the line to make passenger aircraft? It looks like the nose of a DC-10 with the wings of a C133.
noelg From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 8741 times:
I have searched high and low on Google for what this is and am genuinely perplexed! I would be very interested to find something out about this, as there is seemingly nothing online about it!
falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5707 posts, RR: 29 Reply 4, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 8494 times:
Quoting noelg (Reply 3): I hope you bought the picture
I did. I think it was worth $25. I paid $10 each for some TWA Boeing builders photos (727 and 747) a few years ago at the same place.
I took the picture out of the frame to see if it had any markings on the back. It is a photograph of a drawing, as it is on Kodak photo paper. It is a good print so it was done professionally. There is also a McDonnell Douglas stamp on the back that has space for date, department, and model, but all of that is blank. It has McDD's St. Louis HQ address. There is also a serial number for the picture on the back of the print: D4C 54598
The frame has a marking on it too; 8016-15-6. I doubt that means anything, but it may have been a property control number if this thing was in the offices. I have several Missile System prints from McDD (a buddy of mine was an engineer there and rescued them from the trash for me) and they have similar numbers on their frames.
mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9273 posts, RR: 13 Reply 5, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 8407 times:
Wish my uncle was still alive. He worked at the Douglas plant in California and did design work on the DC-8. I'm sure he'd know what this was.
"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary"----Fred Allen
crownvic From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 1616 posts, RR: 6 Reply 6, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 8122 times:
There was an airliner produced in the late 1960's called the McDonnell Douglas 188. It was a stole airliner with a similar configuration to the drawing, but it was smaller. Perhaps this was an early rendition of the design, before it was down-sized? I believe one or two prototypes were produced and actually saw Eastern and American liveries for demo purposes. The design was too expensive and was scrapped.
If you go on Flickr.com, there are many photos of the type.
JohnJ From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1621 posts, RR: 3 Reply 7, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 7937 times:
I guess they were pretty diversified back in the day. I had a job back in the early 1990s at a company that was using an elderly McDonnell Douglas computer system (Pick operating system) to run a call center application.
falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5707 posts, RR: 29 Reply 8, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 7849 times:
Quoting crownvic (Reply 6): There was an airliner produced in the late 1960's called the McDonnell Douglas 188. It was a stole airliner with a similar configuration to the drawing, but it was smaller.
Looks about right. It is smaller, but it is much smaller. The engines are just about right.
Quoting crownvic (Reply 6): If you go on Flickr.com, there are many photos of the type.
Here are a few. These are from the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
The Eastern photo is shot over St. Louis. Busch Stadium is seen in the photo and you can see the approach to the Popular Street Bridge. US40/I-64 are not there yet, but the pylons are are being built. Looks to be 1968. I have a film made in that railroad yard below, which was filmed in May of 1968 and the US 40 elevated section construction appears to be in the same state of progess as in this photo.
mayor From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 9273 posts, RR: 13 Reply 9, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 7780 times:
Quoting falstaff (Reply 8): Looks about right. It is smaller, but it is much smaller. The engines are just about right.
Now, that looks very much like it was derived from the design of the C-133.
"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary"----Fred Allen
474218 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 6340 posts, RR: 9 Reply 10, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 7728 times:
Quoting JohnJ (Reply 7): I guess they were pretty diversified back in the day. I had a job back in the early 1990s at a company that was using an elderly McDonnell Douglas computer system (Pick operating system) to run a call center application.
In the late 60's early 70's the aerospace companies were very diversified! McDonnell Douglas created a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system called McAuto. While Lockheed created the Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CADAM) operating system. While vastly improved over the last 40 plus years both systems are in use today.
falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5707 posts, RR: 29 Reply 11, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 7622 times:
Quoting mayor (Reply 9): Now, that looks very much like it was derived from the design of the C-133.
The C-133 was built by Douglas. We know McDonnell-Douglas built the 188. If McDD came into being in 1967 and these photos of a flying aircraft were taken in 1968 or so, that means that work on the 188 started before the merger. So was the 188 a Douglas plane or was it a McDonnell plane? Which firm originated the design? I can't imagine this thing was entirely designed and put together in the short time between the merger and the date of the photos.
That photo of the 188 next to the McDonnell hanger (STL?) is good evidence that it was a McDonnell plane, of course they may not have got around to painting the hanger yet and that plane was just visiting.
Quoting crownvic (Reply 6): Perhaps this was an early rendition of the design, before it was down-sized?
I am thinking maybe this was a proposed larger version of the 188 done after the smaller model was built. If it were an early design that eventually was downsized to the 188 the plane in the print in question would have been either McDonnell or Douglas, not McDonnell Douglas.
OtnySASLHR From Spain, joined May 2007, 127 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 7414 times:
I thought that the MD188 looked familiar - I looked on Wikipedia and my memory was confirmed that in fact it is a licence-built Breguet 941.
Designed in France in small numbers (6 in total) it featured the four engines interconnected by a drive-shaft. so an engine failure would not mean the loss of propellor rotation and the prop slipstream would continue over the entire wing surface. This accounts for the engines being so widely spread on the wing - a so-called "Blown Wing"
It was evaluated as a STOL airliner and alsoby NASA and The US military but no orders were forthcoming.
Perhaps the print was of a design to look at an enlarged version with the "blown wing" ?
Regards Tony
glideslope From United States of America, joined May 2004, 1549 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago) and read 6861 times:
Quoting falstaff (Thread starter): I was at an antique shop, in St. Louis, today and spotted this cool print of a McDonnell Douglas four engine turbo prop. Obviously they never built this thing, but what would it have been called and how far along in the design process did it get? It is a neat looking plane and appears to be rather large.
Thanks for the post. Truly a neat AC I've never seen. Love the Mock Up in Eastern Livery.
"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved"
srbmod From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 16896 posts, RR: 51 Reply 15, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 6697 times:
Just a thought out of left field, but could this be a potential commercial design based on their proposal for the CX-HLS program, which became known as the C-5? After all, the 747 is based on elements of Boeing's C-5 design and Lockheed did look at a passenger version of the C-5 (L-500).
From the C-5 Galaxy history page on globalsecurity.org:
Quote:
All three industry designs incorporated high-wing configurations with four large turbofan engines in underwing nacelles and front and rear doors with ramps for flow-through loading and unloading. The Boeing and Douglas designs had conventional tail configurations, whereas the Lockheed design incorporated a T-tail configuration. The C-5 design submitted by Boeing was found to have superior aerodynamic cruise performance in the transonic wind-tunnel tests performed at Langley. Boeing's experience with the C-5 competition coupled with Boeing management's vision of the market-ability of jumbo civil transports (and interest from Pan American Airlines) led to the development of the Boeing 747, which enabled Boeing to dominate the world market with a new product line. Although the 747 was a completely new aircraft design (low wing, passenger-carrying civil aircraft), the general configuration influence of the earlier C-5 candidate is in evidence.
High wing, conventional tail seems to match the description. Does anyone have any images of Douglas' C-5 design in which to compare to the sketch in the thread starter? While the awarding of the C-5 contract was prior to the merger, this sketch was probably done not too long after the merger.
Looking at the design, it appears to be a widebody fuselage (you can almost image it as the DC-10), so it would definitely have to be based on something other than the C-133.
homsar From United States of America, joined Jan 2010, 827 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 5642 times:
I don't know why, but that picture looks very familiar. I want to say that I've seen it in a book somewhere. Unfortunately, I won't be home for another six days to flip through my collection.
Aesma From France, joined Nov 2009, 4934 posts, RR: 9 Reply 18, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 4129 times:
Quoting srbmod (Reply 15): Just a thought out of left field, but could this be a potential commercial design based on their proposal for the CX-HLS program, which became known as the C-5? After all, the 747 is based on elements of Boeing's C-5 design and Lockheed did look at a passenger version of the C-5 (L-500).
I like that theory better.
The little STOL props others are talking about was for a US competition, there were plans to build STOLports around the country so a plane was needed.
The large plane in the first post wouldn't have much to do with that, it looks to be the size of an A300 at least !
New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams
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