Arthur Emmons Raymond, aircraft designer, died on March 22nd, aged 99
THERE is, at least in the minds of aviation enthusiasts, a pantheon of great aircraft. It might include the Mosquito, an aircraft with a wooden body which outflew everything in the second world war. Don't forget the Hannibal, a kind of flying drawing-room which gently cruised between London and Paris in the 1930s; although for comfort there was really nothing to beat the China Clipper flying boat which crossed the Pacific in great style. All, though, would have to give way to the DC-3, or Dakota, probably the most successful commercial aircraft ever made. Arthur Raymond led the team that designed it.
Mr Raymond's boss was Donald Douglas. He had a sharp business mind, a rare quality among the pioneers of flying, most of whom were, understandably, more caught up with the romance of it all. His first success was a biplane called the Cloudster, claimed by historians of the Douglas company to be the first aircraft to lift a useful load exceeding its own weight. In 1932 Douglas wanted to make an aircraft that would provide fast, reliable long-distance travel across the United States. Mr Raymond was dispatched to discuss the matter with Charles Lindbergh, who had made the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight, and was consequently regarded as the world's authority on long-distance travel. Lindbergh was also an adviser to TWA, the airline Douglas aimed to do business with.
In 1935, after three attempts, the DC-3 was born. The DC-1 had crashed on landing. The DC-2 had limited success but it had shown the way: it did well in a London to Melbourne air race. The DC-3 was also speedy, greatly shortening the time between destinations in the United States, but, most important, with its fat body it was the first aircraft to accommodate enough passengers to be profitable without carrying mail, in practice a government subsidy. This was the start, if a modest one, of mass air-travel.
Flight of fancy
Arthur Raymond, the Douglas company and TWA had a winner. Douglas could hardly keep pace with the orders, even though the firm, with its staff of 6,000, was making an aircraft every three days. By 1939 the DC-3 accounted for 90% of world airline trade. The aircraft was widely in service into the 1960s. More than 18,000 dc-3s were built, many in countries other than America, and some 2,000 are thought to be still in use.
Mr Raymond recalled that he decided to make aviation his career when he was given a flight in a balloon at the age of 15. His father, a prosperous hotel owner, had no objection and sent him to Harvard, where he got a science degree, and then to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a course in aeronautical engineering. In the early nervous days of flying, designers were for ever concerned that the wings would fall off. Mr Raymond built exceptionally robust wings into the dc-3, stronger than would be considered necessary in modern aircraft, which are assumed to have a limited operational life.
With its 500,000 rivets, the dc-3 might be thought to be over-engineered, but it had the reputation of being virtually indestructable. The story is told of a dc-3 that lost part of a wing when the aircraft scraped a mountain in Arizona, but managed to fly on. A dc-3 was dug out of an Icelandic glacier months after being abandoned and found to be in good working order. It was not a particularly easy aircraft to fly. “It is the aerial equivalent of a tall ship,” a pilot said nostalgically. “Their old engines need a lot more gentle treatment than newer planes. But the sound the dc-3 makes is music. Jets just make a noise.”
The aircraft's toughness was much appreciated in wartime. A Japanese Zero fighter rammed a dc-3 and fell to earth, while the American aircraft flew home and its pilot was credited with a kill. Dwight Eisenhower, a wartime general and later United States president, said the dc-3 was one of the West's four key weapons, the others being the jeep, the bazooka and the atomic bomb.
The dc-3's finest hour came in July 1948 when the Russians cut off the land route between Berlin and Western Europe. Six Royal Air Force Dakotas, as the dc-3s were known in Britain, started daily flights to Berlin with food and other supplies. They were later joined by American and other air forces, together with civilian crews, many of them using dc-3s. The airlift to Berlin continued until September 1949, when the Russian blockade was lifted.
In a working life of more than 50 years Mr Raymond did a lot of things. He led the team that designed other Douglas aircraft. He worked with the designers of America's early space-craft, providing a cool mind when everything seemed to be going wrong. He was a founder of rand, a think-tank whose views, especially on security, have shaped American government policy. But, like an author remembered for just one best-seller, Arthur Raymond is associated with one aircraft, albeit just about the most durable in the history of aviation. He could feel a bit miffed about that.