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30-539: The Douglas Astro was a design concept for a fully reusable space launch system from the Douglas Aircraft Company . It combined two crewed lifting bodies, with only one of them achieving orbit. The system was designed around much existing hardware from the Apollo and other US space programs. This rocketry article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Douglas Aircraft Company The company

60-525: 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

90-735: 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

120-467: A party in the city of Huy , during which he skated while playing the violin . In the 1840s, Meyerbeer's opera Le prophète featured a scene in which performers used roller-skates to simulate ice-skating on a frozen lake set on stage. This exposure had an impact on audiences and led to the rise of roller skating as a new and popular activity throughout the Continent. As ice skaters subsequently developed

150-597: 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

180-413: A revival in the late 2010s and early 2020s, spurred on by a number of viral videos on the popular video-sharing app TikTok and also a revival of 1970s and 1980s pop culture from film and TV nostalgia . Many popular brands sold out to the point of back-order, with many people taking up the hobby during COVID-19 quarantines across the globe. The Roller Skating Rink Operators Association was developed in

210-529: 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

240-636: 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

270-803: 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,

300-585: 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,

330-659: 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,

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360-624: 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

390-485: The Douglas' former logo is preserved on the facility though no longer used by Boeing. Roller skates Roller skates are shoes or bindings that fit onto shoes that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was an inline skate design, effectively an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade. Later the "quad skate" style became more popular, consisting of four wheels arranged in

420-763: 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

450-605: The Olympics on ice. In the mid 1990s roller hockey , played with a ball rather than a puck, became so popular that it even made an appearance in the Olympics in 1992. The National Sporting Goods Association statistics showed, from a 1999 study, that 2.5 million people played roller hockey. Roller skating was considered for the 2012 Summer Olympics but has never become an Olympic event. Other roller skating sports include jam skating and roller derby . Roller skating popularity began during

480-482: 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

510-525: The U.S. in 1937. It is currently named the Roller Skating Association. The association promotes roller skating and offers classes to the public, aiming to educate the population about roller skating. Its current president is Bobby Pender and the associations headquarters are located in Indianapolis . The Roller Skating Association's web page offers some health benefits of roller skating. Some of

540-542: 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

570-467: The art of figure skating, roller skaters wanted the ability to turn in their skates in a similar fashion. In 1863, James Plimpton from Massachusetts invented the "rocking" skate and used a four-wheel configuration for stability, and independent axles that turned by pressing to one side of the skate or the other when the skater wants to create an edge. This was a vast improvement on the Merlin design, one that

600-461: 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

630-504: The late 1950s and 1960s at rock 'n' roll teen dance halls, but exploded and took off in the 1970s and 1980s due to the introduction of large rubberized polymer wheels such as Krypto-Pro, to replace metal wheels, becoming popular and an iconic thing of that time. In the early 1990s it would begin to diminish in popularity. Sales of roller skates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as people sought safe outdoor activities. Roller skating saw

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660-588: 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

690-472: 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

720-515: The same configuration as a typical car . Roller skating is a hobby, sport, and mode of transportation using roller skates. While the first reported use of wheeled skates was on a London stage in 1743, the first patented "roller skate" was introduced in 1760 by Belgian inventor John Joseph Merlin . They were hard to steer and stopping was difficult due to the fact that they did not have any type of braking mechanism and as such they failed to gain popularity. Merlin demonstrated his invention during

750-403: 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

780-457: 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

810-415: Was easier to use and drove the huge popularity of roller skating , dubbed "rinkomania" in the 1860s and 1870s, which spread to Europe and around the world, and continued through the 1930s. The Plimpton skate is still used today. Eventually, roller skating evolved from just a pastime to a competitive sport ; speed skating , racing on skates, and inline figure skating , very similar to what can be seen in

840-637: 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 ,

870-553: 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

900-556: 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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