Douglas Cloudster
Two-seat long-range biplane
title: "Douglas Cloudster" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1920s-united-states-airliners", "douglas-aircraft", "single-engined-tractor-aircraft", "biplanes", "aircraft-first-flown-in-1921", "aircraft-with-fixed-conventional-landing-gear"] description: "Two-seat long-range biplane" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Cloudster" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Two-seat long-range biplane ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox aircraft"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Cloudster |
| image | Douglas Cloudster.jpg |
| type | Two-seat long-range biplane |
| manufacturer | Davis-Douglas Company |
| designer | Donald Douglas |
| first_flight | 24 February 1921 |
| retired | 1926 |
| status | Destroyed |
| number_built | 1 |
| :: |
|name=Cloudster |image=Douglas Cloudster.jpg |caption= |type=Two-seat long-range biplane |manufacturer=Davis-Douglas Company |designer=Donald Douglas |first_flight=24 February 1921 |introduction= |retired=1926 |status=Destroyed |primary_user= |more_users= |produced= |number_built=1 |variants=
The Douglas Cloudster was a 1920s American biplane aircraft. It was the only product of the Davis-Douglas Company, and was designed to make the first non-stop flight coast-to-coast across the United States.
Development
The Davis-Douglas Company was formed in July 1920 to enable Donald Douglas to design and build an aircraft capable of non-stop flight coast-to-coast across the United States. David R. Davis provided the financing for the company. The resulting aircraft was the Cloudster, a single-bay equal-span biplane of wooden construction designed to carry payload of equivalent weight. It was fabric-covered except for the forward fuselage, which was clad in sheet metal. The aircraft was powered by a 400 hp (298 kW) Liberty V-12 piston engine.
The Cloudster first flew on 24 February 1921, the aircraft broke the Pacific Coast altitude record by climbing 19,160 ft (5839 m) on 19 March that year, and attempted the coast-to-coast journey in June. The aircraft failed to make a non-stop journey due to engine failure, it had to make a forced landing at Fort Bliss, Texas on 27 June 1921. In 1923, the Cloudster was sold and modified for sightseeing flights, with two additional open cockpits and seats for five passengers replacing one of the fuel tanks. In 1925 it was again sold to T. Claude Ryan, who had it modified further by adding an enclosed cabin with ten seats, the aircraft became the flagship of Ryan's San Diego–to–Los Angeles airline, one of the first scheduled passenger lines in the country. It was subsequently used by a number of operators and flew beer to Tijuana, Mexico after the 1926 flood, before it made a forced landing in shallow water off the coast of Ensenada, Baja California in December 1926. It was damaged beyond repair by the tide before it could be recovered.
Following the failure of the coast-to-coast flight, Davis lost interest and Douglas went on to form the Douglas Company (later the Douglas Aircraft Company) in July 1921.
1945 Cloudster II
Main article: Douglas Cloudster II
Douglas Aircraft would revive the name in 1945 for a proposed general aviation aircraft with a pusher propeller, similar to the XB-42, as the Cloudster II. The company's last effort in general aviation, it was not a success.
Specifications (Davis-Douglas Cloudster)
|ref=McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920 : Volume I |prime units?=imp General characteristics
|crew= |capacity= |length ft=36 |length in=9 |length note= |span ft=55 |span in=11 |span note= |height ft=12 |height in=0 |height note= |wing area sqft= |wing area note= |swept area sqft= |swept area note= |volume ft3= |volume note= |aspect ratio= |airfoil= |empty weight lb= |empty weight note= |gross weight lb=9600 |gross weight note= |max takeoff weight lb= |max takeoff weight note= |fuel capacity=660 USgal fuel in two fuel tanks with 50 USgal oil in a single tank |more general= Powerplant
|eng1 number=1 |eng1 name=Liberty L-12 |eng1 type=V-12 water-cooled piston engine |eng1 hp=400
|prop blade number=2 |prop name=fixed-pitch wooden propeller |prop dia ft= |prop dia in= |prop dia note= Performance
|max speed mph=120 |max speed note= |max speed mach= |cruise speed mph=85 |cruise speed note= |stall speed mph= |stall speed note= |never exceed speed mph= |never exceed speed note= |minimum control speed mph= |minimum control speed note= |range miles=550 |range note= |combat range miles= |combat range note= |ferry range miles=2800 |ferry range note= |endurance=33 hours |ceiling ft=19160 |ceiling note= |g limits= |roll rate= |glide ratio= |climb rate ftmin= |climb rate note= |time to altitude= |sink rate ftmin= |sink rate note= |lift to drag= |wing loading lb/sqft= |wing loading note= |fuel consumption lb/mi= |power/mass=0.417 hp/lb
|more performance=
References
;Notes ;Bibliography
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing
References
- (1982). "The Spirit of Ryan". TAB BOOKS Inc..
- Taylor 1989, p.773
- "Historical Snapshot: Cloudster Passenger Biplane". Boeing.
- (1988). "McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920 : Volume I". Naval Institute Press.
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=oyQDAAAAMBAJ&q=cloudster&pg=PA98][https://books.google.com/books?id=oyQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA98 '' "5 Passenger Pusher" '', March 1947, Popular Science] article with rare photos
- [http://www.aerofiles.com/_doug.html Cloudster II at Aerofile.com] bottom of page
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=O-ADAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+mechanics+1947+%22cloudster%22&pg=PA103 '' "Tail Pusher Plane Cruises 200 mph" '', March 1947, Popular Mechanics]
- (28 August 1947). "Here and There : Abandoned". Flight and Aircraft Engineer.
- (1988). "McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920 : Volume I". Naval Institute Press.
- "The Incomplete Guide to Airfoil Usage".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::