Howard Aircraft Corporation

Howard Aircraft Corporation
	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Key people	Gordon Israel
Products	Aircraft

Howard Aircraft Corporation was a small United States aircraft manufacturer in the 1930s and 1940s. The factory was initially on the south side of

Chicago Municipal Airport at 5301 W. 65th Street; during World War II a second plant was opened at DuPage Airport

west of Chicago.

Early history

Designer Ben "Benny" Howard, after his success with smaller aircraft, designed and built the

Monocoupe design. After winning both the Bendix and Thompson trophies in 1935, Howard turned to the formation of the Howard Aircraft Company - later Howard Aircraft Corporation on January 1, 1937, to produce commercial versions of the now-famous DGA cabin monoplanes, each custom-built by Ben Howard and Gordon Israel

.

One of the airplanes produced by the company was the

DGA-12, used a 300 horsepower (220 kW) Jacobs engine

.

Production of the Howard Aircraft Corporation from 1936 to 1939 totaled about 30 aircraft. In 1939, Howard developed the 5-place DGA-15, building about 40 of the four/five-place aircraft, powered by one of three different engines. The founder, Ben Howard, left the company at this time to join Douglas Aircraft Company as test pilot.

Wartime production

The onset of

U.S. Army Air Corps

also acquired a variety of prewar Howard aircraft as utility aircraft.

Howard also produced a two-seat open-cockpit DGA-18 trainer (also referred to as DGA-125), and later a license-built version of the Fairchild PT-23.

Many of the U.S. Navy Howard-built aircraft were sold to civil pilot owners postwar and a number were still airworthy in 2012.

After producing several of the most famous racing and private aircraft of the Golden Age of Aviation, the Howard Aircraft Corporation ceased production in 1944. Stockholders elected not to produce civilian aircraft after the war, sold the aviation assets, and used the proceeds to buy an electric-motor manufacturing company in Racine, Wisconsin, and named it Howard Industries.

Aircraft

Model name	First flight	Number built	Type
Howard DGA-1
Howard DGA-2
Howard DGA-3		1	Open cockpit racer
Howard DGA-4	1932	2	Open cockpit racer
Howard DGA-5
Howard DGA-6	1934	1	Cabin racer
Howard DGA-7
Howard DGA-8	1936	18	Cabin monoplane
Howard DGA-9		7	Cabin monoplane
Howard DGA-11		4	Cabin monoplane
Howard DGA-12		2	Cabin monoplane
Howard DGA-15		520	Cabin monoplane
Howard DGA-18	1941	~60	Open cockpit basic trainer

References

Citations

Bibliography

Black, Lisa (4 August 1998). "HISTORY OF DUPAGE'S WW II PLANE PLANT FADING". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2019.

External links

Media related to Howard Aircraft Corporation at Wikimedia Commons