A Few McDonnell Douglas Bumper Stickers

  

I love the “Sound of Freedom’ sticker!

Seldom Seen Patches and Stickers

 

 

A-12 patch, F-23 patch and an F-23 sticker.

Patches and Stickers I

   While looking for my McDonnell pins, I found dozens patches and stickers. Most my own with some from the web. Enjoy!

View the patches and stickers here

McDonnell F4H Phantom II World Speed Records

In September of 1960, the new Phantom II set several world speed records. McDonnell Aircraft issued pamphlets after each run and here are two of them.

Info from Wikipedia:

To show off their new fighter, the Navy led a series of record-breaking flights early in Phantom development:

* Operation Top Flight: On 6 December 1959, the second XF4H-1 performed a zoom climb to a world record 98,557 ft (30,040 m). The previous record of 94,658 ft (28,852 m) was set by a Soviet Sukhoi T-43-1 prototype. Commander Lawrence E. Flint, Jr., USN accelerated his aircraft to Mach 2.5 at 47,000 ft (14,330 m) and climbed to 90,000 ft (27,430 m) at a 45 degree angle. He then shut down the engines and glided to the peak altitude. As the aircraft fell through 70,000 ft (21,300 m), Flint restarted the engines and resumed normal flight.

* On 5 September 1960, an F4H-1 averaged 1,216.78 mph (1,958.16 km/h) over a 500 kilometer (311 mi) closed-circuit course.
* On 25 September 1960, an F4H-1 averaged 1,390.21 mph (2,237.26 km/h) over a 100 kilometer (62 mi) closed-circuit course.

* Operation LANA: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Naval aviation (L is the Roman numeral for 50 and ANA stood for Anniversary of Naval Aviation) on 24 May 1961, Phantoms flew across the continental United States in under three hours and included several tanker refuelings. The fastest of the aircraft averaged 869.74 mph (1,400.28 km/h) and completed the trip in 2 hours 47 minutes, earning the pilot (and future NASA Astronaut), Lieutenant Richard Gordon, USN and RIO, Lieutenant Bobbie Long, USN, the 1961 Bendix trophy.

* Operation Sageburner: On 28 August 1961, a Phantom averaged 902.769 mph (1,452.826 km/h) over a three-mile (4.82 km) course flying below 125 ft (40 m) at all times. Commander J.L. Felsman, USN was killed during the first attempt at this record on 18 May 1961 when his aircraft disintegrated in the air after pitch damper failure.

* Operation Skyburner: On 22 December 1961, a modified Phantom with water injection set an absolute world record speed of 1,606.342 mph (2,585.086 km/h).

* On 5 December 1961, another Phantom set a sustained altitude record of 66,443.8 ft (20,252.1 m).

* Operation High Jump: A series of time-to-altitude records was set in early 1962; 34.523 seconds to 3,000 m (9,840 ft), 48.787 seconds to 6,000 m (19,680 ft), 61.629 seconds to 9,000 m (29,530 ft), 77.156 seconds to 12,000 m (39,370 ft), 114.548 seconds to 15,000 m (49,210 ft), 178.5 seconds to 20,000 m (65,600 ft), 230.44 seconds to 25,000 m (82,000 ft), and 371.43 seconds to 30,000 m (98,400 ft). Although not officially recognized, the Phantom zoom-climbed to over 100,000 ft (30,480 m) during the last attempt.

All in all, the Phantom set 16 world records. With the exception of Skyburner, all records were achieved in unmodified production aircraft. Five of the speed records remained unbeaten until the F-15 Eagle appeared in 1975.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II#World_records

Download the Speed Record pamphlet in a PDF here

Download the Speed Record Again pamphlet in a PDF here

Crazed Plastic Articles

  In 1979, as an offshoot of The McDonnell Douglas Scale Model Club, the St. Louis Gateway Chapter of the International Plastic Model Society (IPMS) started a quarterly publication called “Crazed Plastic”. Most of the issues were edited by Bill Drescher or Mike Mackowski. Many of the articles were about MDC products written by MDC employees (Myself included). Crazed Plastic published 36 issues from 1979 to 1988. Several issues had actual paint chips include with the articles. While primarily a magazine for plastic scale modelers, much historical data was preserved and presented. Here are a few of the Crazed Plastic articles:

From CP#12, an article on AV-8B Harrier II Rollout Markings by Bill Drescher

Download the Harrier II Rollout Markings article in a PDF here

From CP#21, an article on F-3H Demon Details by Tommy Thomason

Download the F-3H Demon Details article in a PDF here

From CP#13, an article on RF-4C Wrap-Around Camouflage by Greg Kuklinski and Mike Brickman

Download the RF-4C Wrap-Around Camo article in a PDF here

  From CP#11, an article on F-15 Strike Eagle Markings by Greg Kuklinski and Flight Test F-15A Markings by Mike Brickman. A actual paint chip is included.

Download the F-15 Strike Eagle article in a PDF here

Download the Flight Test F-15A Markings article in a PDF here

From CP#08, an article on JB-2 Loon (LTV-N-2) 3-view and Markings by Ron Downey (SMDC)

Download the JB-2 Loon article in a PDF here

From CP#03, an article on the V-1 Flying Bomb with 3-view and Markings by Ron Downey (SMDC). (Right Click to open a full size image in a new tab.)

From CP#11 , an article on F-101 Voodoos Camouflage, Markings and Detailed by Mike Mackowski and Bill Drescher

Download the F-101 Voodoo article in a PDF here

From CP#22 , an article on Block 7 F-18 Hornet Details by Mike Mackowski and Bill Drescher

Download the Block 7 F-18 Hornet article in a PDF here

From CP#15,  an article on QF-102 Delta Dagger Drones by Ron Downey

Download the QF-102 Delta Dagger Drones article in a PDF here

From CP# 09, an article on F-10B Army Skynights by Greg Kuklinski

  Download the F-10B Army Skynights article in a PDF here

Army G.91

From CP# 09, an article on Army G.91 Fiats by Bill Drescher.

Download the Army G.91 article as a PDF here

Curtiss Wright Lithographs

  Along with the pin shown below, I also received four Curtiss Wright color lithographs. All from early WWII. From left top: AT-9, early C-46, P-40D and the SNG-1.

James Crow German Me-109 Booklet

I corresponded with James Crow from the late 1960’s on thru the 1970’s and received many photos from him. His photos are unique as he had spent years going to German WWII pilots and widows and copying their personal photos!

As far as I know, this is the only booklet he ever published by himself. Although, a lot  of his photos have been published in other works. I will upload other of his photos shortly.

Download the Me-109 booklet as a PDF here

McDonnell-NASA Gemini Booklets

 

I have collected many booklets over the years and here are two early Gemini spacecraft ones.

Download Gemini 1 Booklet as a PDF here

Download Gemini 2 booklet as a PDF here

MDC Aircraft Colors Booklet

In 1980 the International Plastic Modeler Society (IPMS) held their regional convention in St. Louis. It was known as Multicon '80. Three of us who worked at McDonnell Douglas and were IPMS St. Louis members decided that we should have a booklet as a free giveaway for the MultiCon. We titled it "McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Colors" with many three view drawings and paint schemes of F – 18, AV-8B, F-15 and F4 aircraft complete with paint chips.

Obtaining accurate color information is one of the most vexing problems facing an aviation historian or a modeler. This booklet attempts to solve this problem for the McDonnell Douglas aircraft. The paint chips in this book were painted at the same time as the aircraft and are, therefore, as accurate as can be provided. The camouflage patterns shown this book were taken from official MDC drawings. All color chips were provided by the McDonnell aircraft company paint shop.

Download the MDC Aircraft Colors booklet here

McDonnell Douglas Service Pins

Speaking of service pins, I dug out my 40 years of MDC pins plus a few non-service pins.

         

The jeweled 20 year pin was under the old pin system and the 25, 30, 35 and 40 were under the new pin system.

The first pin I received when I hired on to McDonnell Aircraft Company.

 

     

An old McAir Presentee pin, McDonnell Aircraft 50th Anniversary pin and an MDC Logo pin.

The MDC “Bug” pin.

And finally, the Boeing pin after the buy-out with the reworked “Bug”.

Curtiss Wright Pin

Another item recently given to me was a friend's father's Curtiss Wright lapel/tie-tac pin. He worked at Curtiss Wright in the early 1940’s, coincidentally in the same building in St. Louis that I spent much of my career!

I am not sure if it is a service pin or just a decorative pin; but, it is very nice. Any comments? (Click on the photo to enlarge)

Aviation Stamps

Knowing that I am an Aeronautical Engineer and an avid Aviation Historian, my friends frequently give me aviation related items for my collection. Recently, one such item was a sheet of Classic American Aircraft US stamps. These stamps were issued in 1996 (I think) and seem to be the only sheet issued. It contains both Civilian and Military aircraft and while I would have picked a few different subjects, it’s a nice list of iconic aircraft. Enjoy! (Click on the photos to enlarge)