Paul --

Thanks for the item.  I've actually seen it before and it is a good
explanation.  In addition, as an item of trivia interest, the aircraft
at the top of the page is a later version of the Aero Commander.  My dad
was an engineer with Aero Commander from late in 1951 until he came back
to California, to the Douglas plant in Long Beach, and worked on DC-8s,
DC-9s and DC-10s -- this was before and then during the time of the
merger with McDonnell.

The Aero Commander was originally conceived by one of the true American
aeronautical geniuses, Ted Smith, and a bunch of other guys who worked
at Douglas during WWII.  The prototype was built in Culver City and made
its first flight from the Hughes plant because Ted Smith knew Howard
Hughes and Hughes let them use the runway.  The manufacturing was set up
in Oklahoma City because of the financing arrangements in getting the
whole business up and running.  My dad had worked with those guys at
Douglas and took the job offer to go to Oklahoma, which is why I grew up
in the Bible Belt and can deliver a pretty good southwestern twang when
I need it. During those days the company was kind of like a big family.
As a kid I knew Ted Smith and his family and we would sometimes, during
the hot summers, go to his house and go swimming in his pool.

Since Smith and the rest of the Douglas guys had worked on attack
bombers during WWII, notably the A-26, the Aero Commander looks an awful
lot like the A-26, particularly in wing plan, tail surfaces and general
layout.  The views from the top are especially similar.

The "engineering offices" at Aero Commander in those days were nothing
more than a very small annex on the side of the manufacturing hanger,
with two rows of drafting tables crowded into the room and a narrow
aisle down the middle.  There was a single door leading to the plant and
the manufacturing guys and engineering guys were constantly going back
and forth to solve matters of the moment, and even with that door closed
the engineering guys could hear the constant hammering of rivet guns and
smell the lubricants and paint.

Quite often dad would go into the plant on Saturday to get in some extra
work and take me with him -- I was maybe 10 or 12 at the time.  While he
was over the drafting board I would have the free run of the plant and
would be out on the factory floor, crawling in and out of
partially-finished airplanes, fiddling with tools, clambering over this
and that and thoroughly fascinated by the whole thing.  It's my guess
that current practices at Boeing or Northrup-Grumman don't allow
unsupervised 12-year-old kids to wander around the factory floor and
play with half-finished aircraft.

I have a lot more stories about those days but I've probably taken too
much of your time already.

Thanks again, and best wishes --

Don Fuller

Good hearing from you Don. What are you up to these days?
You should make time to visit my hangar in Santa Paula.

Paul Lamar