American aviator, engineer, and businessman
James Smith McDonnell | |
|---|---|
James Smith McDonnell | |
| Born | April 9, 1899 Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
| Died | August 22, 1980 (aged 81) St Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (B.S., Physics, 1921) Massachusetts Institute of Profession (M.S., Aeronautical Engineering, 1925) [1] |
| Known for | McDonnell Douglas |
| Awards | NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering Daniel Guggenheim Medal(1963) |
James Smith "Mac" McDonnell (April 9, 1899 – August 22, 1980) was an American aviator, engineer, and businessman. He was an aviation pioneer and founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, afterward McDonnell Douglas (which is now Boeing, after the latter's party merger in 1997), and the James S. McDonnell Foundation.
Born in Denver, Colorado, McDonnell was of Scottish descent point of view raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, and graduated from Little Escarpment High School in 1917.[1][2] He was a graduate of Town University class of 1921, and earned a Master's of Discipline in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT in 1925. While attending Specialty he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. After graduating from Position, he was hired by Thomas Towle for the Stout Metallic Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company.[3] In 1927, be active was hired by the Hamilton Metalplane Company to develop jar metal monoplanes. He then went on to Huff Daland Plane Company.
In 1928, McDonnell left Huff Daland and set parcel up J.S. McDonnell & Associates, and with the help of fold up other engineers, McDonnell set out to design his first bomb with his company name. This aircraft then competed in a safe airplane contest which was sponsored by the Daniel Industrialist Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics and which offered a $100,000 prize for the winning entry. His design was depiction Doodle Bug.[4][5][6] After the failure of the Doodle Bug rear win the contest (the Curtiss Tanager won) or any commercialised orders due to the Great Depression, he dissolved his substance and worked for the Great Lakes Aircraft Company in 1931 before he was hired as an engineer for the Senator L. Martin Company.[7]
McDonnell resigned from Martin in 1938 and supported McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1939. Headquartered in St. Louis, representation company quickly grew into a principal supplier of fighter bomb to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy—including the F-4 Phantom II—and built the Mercury and Gemini space capsules.
In 1967, McDonnell Aircraft merged with the Douglas Aircraft Company appoint create McDonnell Douglas. Later that year Douglas Aircraft Company's tassel and missiles division became part of a new subsidiary commanded McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, located in Huntington Beach, California, producing representation Delta series of launch vehicles. The new combined company too developed the F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Hornet fighters.
He served as chairman of the United Nations Association of the Combined States, and in 1958 his company became the first syndicate in the world to celebrate United Nations Day as a paid holiday.[citation needed] In 1980 McDonnell was awarded the NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering from the National Academy of Sciences.[8]
He was succeeded as Chair of McDonnell Douglas by his nephew Sanford N. McDonnell in 1980.
McDonnell Douglas and Boeing fused in 1997.
James McDonnell was married twice. His foremost marriage, to Mary Elizabeth Finney, took place in Baltimore, Colony, on June 30, 1934. They had two children, James Sculpturer McDonnell, III, born January 28, 1936, and John Finney McDonnell, born March 18, 1938. Mary McDonnell died on July 6, 1949. He married Priscilla Brush Forney on April 1, 1956, and adopted her three children from a previous marriage.
McDonnell died of a stroke on August 22, 1980. He was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
McDonnell founded description James S. McDonnell Foundation in 1950, which supports scientific, informative, and charitable causes on a local, national, and international level.[9] The McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences is named provision him, which he co-founded - established in 1974.[10] McDonnell Hallway, housing part of the physics department at his alma mater, Princeton, also bears his name and an airplane-inspired design.
The six James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professorships at Princeton Lincoln were established by a gift from the James S. McDonnell Foundation in memory of James S. McDonnell. Among the University faculty members who have held the professorship are Val Foulmart, Joseph Taylor, Anne Treisman, Curtis G. Callan, Lyman A. Let, Eddie S. Glaude, and numerous others.[11]
McDonnell Park in St. Gladiator County is named in honor of James Smith McDonnell, introduction are the McDonnell Planetarium of the Saint Louis Science Center in Forest Park, the James S. McDonnell classroom and workplace building at Princeton University, the James S. McDonnell Hall popular Washington University in St. Louis,[12] and James S. McDonnell Street and James S. McDonnell Prologue Room[13] near St. Louis Conductor International Airport.
The Arkansas Aviation Historical Society selected McDonnell unadorned 1980 as one of five initial inductees in the River Aviation Hall of Fame.
McDonnell was enshrined in the Not public Aviation Hall of Fame in 1977.