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Benny
Howard
Benny Howard and His Darned Good
Airplanes
Benjamin Odel Howard, better known as
“Ben” or “Benny,” was born in Palestine, Texas, on February
4, 1904, just weeks after the Wright brothers' historic
first flight. At age 19, Howard moved to Dallas and started
working in the Curtiss aircraft factory where he soon bought
a used biplane and a how-to-fly book.
Believing that the book taught him
everything he needed to know about flying, Howard took to
the skies—with disastrous results. He crashed his Curtiss
during one of his first flight attempts, killing his
passenger and seriously injuring himself. After recovering,
Benny realized that it would be prudent to take some flying
lessons. He eventually earned a commercial pilots license.
Determined to avoid formal education at
all costs, Howard stumbled into the field of aircraft design
when a Houston bootlegger approached him about modifying an
airplane to include a cargo hold capable of holding 15 cases
of illegal liquor. (This was during the early days of
Prohibition—the era following the enactment of an amendment
to the U.S. Constitution that made the sale or production of
alcoholic beverages a crime. Widely ignored, Prohibition was
eventually repealed on December 5, 1933.)
The customer was delighted, proclaiming
the “rum-runner” to be a “Darned Good Airplane,” and the
name stuck—the initials D-G-A becoming the Howard aircraft
trademark (although the reason was probably unbeknownst to
the licensing authorities at the U.S. Department of
Commerce!).
At 20 years old, Howard was flying an
airplane he had designed and built himself – the
DGA-1—accomplishing this feat with only the benefit of an
eight-grade education with a half term of high school added
for good measure. Benny, at the age of 26, was competing in
the smallest racing aircraft ever constructed—a plane he
designed and built named Pete—which would eventually
win five air races. Benny, an incorrigible scrounger, used
material salvaged from aircraft wrecks and scrap heaps to
build Pete—officially designated the DGA-3. The tiny
white Pete, powered by a 90-horsepower (67-kilowatt)
Wright-Gipsy engine, was flown by Howard to a third place
finish in the 1930 National Air Races with a speed of 162.80
miles per hour (262 kilometres per hour).
The early successes of Pete
convinced Benny Howard that there was a lot of money to be
made in racing airplanes. However, competing aircraft were
soon outclassing Pete, so Benny and his partner,
Gordon Israel, started work on two new and larger
aircraft—the DGA-4 and the DGA-5—a pair of look-alikes named
Mike and Ike.
Mike and Ike were both
low-wing, wire-braced monoplanes. Ike weighed a
little less than Mike and its Menasco Buccaneer
engine was set for a slightly higher octane rating, which
may have made Ike the faster of the two aircraft, at
least in 1932.
Ike was sponsored by the General
Motors Chevrolet division and also flew under the name of
Miss Chevrolet. Equipped with a special carburettor, the
DGA-5 at one time held the world record for inverted speed
(flying in an inverted position—particularly important for
acrobatic or military flight). Never content, Howard was
always modifying the DGA-4 and DGA-5 and the two regularly
traded the mantle of “fastest.”
Mike and Ike had wingspans
measuring 20 feet 1 inch (six meters), fuselages of 17 feet
(five meters) in length, and their cockpits were hinged on
the side. The small cockpit was closed after the pilot was
seated inside (level with the rudders), but a large hole
accommodated the pilot's head. Thirty small ventilation
holes drilled into the windshield provided fresh air, and
the engine cowlings varied slightly between the two
aircraft.
Landing gear differed significantly.
Mike used an internal, shock absorbing system with large
wheels to meet a certain racing specification. Ike
featured a unique tandem landing gear of two small wheels
covered by a single wheel fairing on each leg, originally
designed as a joke, but ultimately proving quite successful.
Later, handling problems while on the ground forced the
replacement of both planes' landing gear with a more
conventional single wheel SPAATs (Skin Penetrating Agent
Applicator) penetrating nozzle design.
Soon to follow was the DGA-6, known as
Mister Mulligan, which won the 1935 Bendix (flown by
Gordon Israel) and Thompson Cup air races. Unfortunately,
Benny Howard and his wife “Mike” were almost killed when
Mister Mulligan, leading in the early stages of the 1936
Bendix Transcontinental Race, experienced a propeller
failure flying over New Mexico. Both Howards recovered from
the serious injuries resulting from the crash, but Benny
tragically lost a leg in the accident and Mister Mulligan
was destroyed.
A four-seat aircraft, tagged the DGA-8,
was introduced in 1936 to capitalize on the publicity
generated by Mister Mulligan, to be quickly followed
in 1937 by the DGA-9, powered by a 285-horsepower
(213-kilowatt) Jacobs L-5 engine. The success of Mister
Mulligan also led to the formation of the Howard
Aircraft Corporation on January 1, 1937, to produce
commercial versions of the now-famous DGA cabin monoplanes,
each custom-built by Benny Howard and Gordon Israel.
The DGA-11, powered by a nine-cylinder
450-horsepower (336-kilowatt) Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior
radial engine, was purportedly the fastest four-seat civil
aircraft of the late 1930s, able to achieve a top speed of
about 200 miles per hour (322 kilometres per hour). A
favourite of the high society and Hollywood circles, the
DGA-11 cost about $16,500 in 1938—a princely sum for the
time. A slower and less costly version, the DGA-12, used a
300-horsepower (483-kilowatt) Jacobs engine.
Production of the Howard Aircraft
Corporation from 1936 to 1939 totalled about 30 aircraft. In
1940, Howard developed the DGA-15, building about 40 of the
four/five-place aircraft, powered by one of three different
engines.
The onset of World War II signalled the
end of the Howard aircraft line. The U.S. Navy procured
about 525 modified DGA-15s for use as the DG 1-3 Nightingale
air ambulance, the GH-1 utility transport, and the NH-1
instrument trainer aircraft. Exceptionally roomy and
high-powered, the modified DGA-15 was also difficult to fly
and quite unforgiving—earning the unwanted nickname of
“Ensign Eliminator.” The U.S. Army Air Corps also acquired a
variety of Howard aircraft (DGA-8, DGA-9, DGA-12 and DGA-15)
as utility aircraft.
After producing several of the most
famous racing aircraft of the Golden Age of Aviation, the
Howard Aircraft Corporation ceased production in 1943.
Pete, Ike and Mike are still in existence—Mike
is currently displayed as part of the aircraft collection of
the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland, Ohio,
while Pete is the only Golden Age racing plane still
flying with original parts. They are three of the last
survivors of that colourful period, an era exemplified by
Benny Howard and his Darned Good Airplanes.
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