Carl Cover

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Carl Anson Cover
DC-4, DC-5
Air force United States Army Air Service
United States Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Forces
BattlesWorld War I
World War II
RankColonel

Carl Anson Cover (26 April 1893 – 27 November 1944) was the chief test pilot and first to fly the

DC-4, and the DC-5 airliners. Cover became Senior Vice President and general manager for Douglas Aircraft and later Vice President of Bell Aircraft
.

Early life

Cover was born on 26 April 1893, to Hugh and Helen Cover in Roxbury, Pennsylvania.[1] He attended high school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and worked as a millwright machinist at Bethlehem Steel, where his father was a foreman.[2] Cover had three younger sisters, Margaret, Mary, and Anna.[3]

Aviation career

US Army Air Service

Cover enlisted in the

Langley Field in Virginia.[5]

Inter-Island Airways

In 1929, Cover was flying for the

Hilo, introducing air travel to the residents and visitors of Hawaii.[6]

Douglas Aircraft Company

Major Cover left the Army and Inter-Island Airways in 1930 to become a test pilot for the Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California. He soon became the Chief Test Pilot and Vice President of Sales, and eventually Senior Vice President and general manager of Douglas Aircraft.[8][9]

In 1931, a

Notre Dame University football coach Knute Rockne. The cause of the crash was failure of the wooden wing spar. TWA's Jack Frye
lead the campaign for aircraft manufacturers to develop rugged airliners using metal construction. Douglas Aircraft responded to this request with the DC-1.

On 1 July 1933, Cover flew the first test flight of the

DC-1.[10] Shortly after take-off both engines quit; Cover pushed the nose over and the engines re-started. Cover safely managed to get the airplane back on the ground after a short 12-minute flight, to find the carburetors had been installed backwards.[11][12]

After TWA gained experience with the DC-1, they created a list of improvements for the airliner resulting in the creation of the

DC-2
. On 11 May 1934, Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-2. The DC-2 was a commercial success, selling 198 aircraft.

DC-3. On 17 December 1935, Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-3.[13] The DC-3 is credited as one of the most significant airliners ever produced, helping create the modern airline industry and aid the Allies victory in World War II. There were over 16,000 DC-3's and military version C-47's built.[14]

On 7 June 1938, Cover flew the first test flight of the four-engine DC-4.

DC-4E
for experimental.

On 20 February 1939 Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-5.[9] There were only 12 DC-5's built, and it has been called "The Forgotten Douglas."

World War II and Bell Aircraft

During World War II,

Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Georgia. Plant 6 was subcontracted to Bell Aircraft for the production of the B-29 under license of Boeing
. He was released from active duty in August 1944.

In September 1944, Cover accepted an offer from Bell Aircraft as Vice President and the civilian general manager of Plant 6.

Death and honors

On 27 November 1944, Cover died in a plane crash while trying to land during a snow storm in Dayton, Ohio. He is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Cover Street in the Douglas Industrial Park at the Long Beach Airport is named in his honor.[16]

Lawrence Bell, founder of Bell Aircraft, said about Cover, "In my opinion no single individual in the aircraft industry has contributed more to commercial and military aviation than Carl Cover. His abilities encompass all phases from engineering and flight test to sales direction and over-all organization."[17]

References

  1. ^ "Ohio Dept. of Health, Death Certificate". familysearch.org. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  2. ^ "World War I Draft Reg. Card". familysearch.org. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  3. ^ "1900 United States Federal Census". ancestry.com. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  4. ^ "Veterans Compensation Application". ancestry.com. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  5. ^ "US Cities Directories, Newport News, VA". ancestry.com. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  6. ^ .
  7. ISBN 978-0-9701594-4-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link
    )
  8. ^ "Here and There: More American Salaries". FLIGHT: 147. 11 September 1941. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  9. ^ .
  10. ^ "Three-Score Years and Ten". Flight International. 13 December 1973. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  11. ^ Holden, Henry (December 2005). "The Douglas DC-3 Legacy". airportjournals.com. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  12. ^ "The DC-3 is Twenty-Five..." FLIGHT: 984. 23 December 1960. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Douglas Names the Price". Flight International: 855. December 1975. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  14. ^ Tegler, Eric. "Why the DC-3 is Such a Badass Airplane". popularmechanics.com. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  15. ^ "DC-4/C-54 Skymaster Transport". Boeing. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  16. ^ Mehlinger, Samantha (8–21 May 2018). "A Brief History of What is Now Douglas Airpark" (PDF). Long Beach Business Journal. XXXI (9): 24, 28–29. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  17. ^ "Col. Cover Killed in Plane Crash; Pioneer Aviator". dmairfield.org. Retrieved 28 April 2019.

External links