Howard DGA-6 (Mister Mulligan)
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- This article is about the experimental racing plane. For the golf term, see Mulligan.
Mister Mulligan was the only airplane ever designed for the specific purpose of winning the Bendix Trophy. The plane was designed and developed by Ben Howard and Gordon Israel, who later became an engineer for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. Mister Mulligan was designed to fly the entire length of the race nonstop and at high altitude. Neither had ever been done before. Mister Mulligan won the trophy, and thus changed the way in which long distance airplanes were designed.
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[edit] History
Ben Howard was one of America's premier aircraft designers and competitive pilots during the mid-1930s building a series of airplanes carrying the DGA, or "Damn Good Aircraft," logo. None was more famous than Mister Mulligan, the racing DGA-6 which captured both the Bendix and Thompson trophies at the 1935 National Air Races. No other pilot or single aircraft had won both races in the same year.[1]
The Bendix Trophy was a cross-country race from the west coast to the site of the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio, and typically was the starting event of the week-long aviation festival. The Thompson Trophy was awarded to the winner of the unlimited division in close-course pylon racing at the National Air Races..[1]
The sole DGA-6 was constructed in 1934 by Gordon Israel and Benjamin Howard. It featured a steel tube fuselage with a plywood skinned wing. While enroute to the 1934 air races, oxygen and fuel system problems caused an off-field landing which damaged the gear and propeller. The aircraft could not be repaired in time and missed the 1934 season.[2]
In the 1935 Bendix race the aircraft was loaded with 300 gallons of gasoline, 30 gallons of oil and oxygen equipment for two giving it the ability to fly for 7 hours at 22,000 feet. At that load the aircraft required 1,500 feet of runway and had an initial climb out of close to 2000 fpm..[1]
Ben Howard and Gordon Israel flew the DGA-6 in the Bendix and won with a speed of 238.70 m.p.h.,and Harold Neumann racing the DGA-6 flew at 220.19 m.p.h. in winning the Thompson. Howard's DGA-6 also had the distinction of being the only racer during the golden age of airshows to evolve into a successful commercial production aircraft, first as the DGA-8 and DGA-9; then the DGA-11 and DGA-12.[1]
Ben Howard's engineering advantage was his low-drag airframe and the use of the 850-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial. The fuel capacity of the four-seat Mister Mulligan made the difference in the Bendix race as Howard and Israel beat Roscoe Turner by less than a minute thanks to two fewer fueling stops in the race from Burbank, Calif., to Cleveland, although Turner's 1000-hp Pratt & Whitney Hornet on his Weddell-Williams racer gave him the power advantage.[1]
In the early 1930's, the New Orleans, La., based Weddell-Williams had dominated the American air racing scene, until Mister Mulligan broke Weddell-Williams three-year streak of wins in the Bendix. By the end of the week, Howard and his DGA-6 replaced Weddell-Williams as the rising star of aviation by upsetting defending champion Turner in the Thompson race after he was forced out. Newspapers hailed the 1935 event as the "Ben Howard National Air Races".[1] Mister Mulligan is the only aircraft in history to win both the Bendix and Thompson trophies.
Unfortunately Mister Mulligan's days on the national air race scene were limited. The next year, Howard and his wife were injured when Mister Mulligan lost a propeller blade and crash-landed near Crownpoint, New Mexico during the latter stages of the 1936 Bendix (New York - Los Angeles) race. 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.[3] Roscoe Turner met a similar fate, ground-looping on a rough field in Texas. The misfortunes of Howard and Turner opened the way for Arkansan Louise Thadden in her Beechcraft Staggerwing to become the first woman to win a national air trophy.
34 years later a racing enthusiast, Bob Reichardt tracked down Mister Mulligan's crash site and was surprised to find that most of the parts were still in usable condition, protected by local dry, mountain climate in that part of New Mexico.[4] With the salvaged parts as patterns, Reichardt was able to recreate Mister Mulligan but was killed in 1977[5] while doing a timed run over the Tonopah, Nevada dry lake.[6]
The success of Mister Mulligan led to the formation of the Howard Aircraft Corporation (HAC) on January 1, 1937.
[edit] Specifications (Howard DGA-6)
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 25 ft 0 in (7.6 meters)
- Wingspan: 31 ft 1 in (9.5 meters)
- Height: 9 ft 0 in (2.9 meters)
- Wing area: unk (unk)
- Empty weight: unk (unk)
- Loaded weight: 5,000 lb (2272 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 5,000 lb (2272 kg)
- Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney Wasp liquid-cooled radial, 850 hp (unk)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 260 mph (unk)
- Range: 1,500 miles ()
- Service ceiling: 22,000 ft ()
- Rate of climb: 2,000 fpm ()
- Power/mass: 5.9 lb:1 hp ()
Armament
[edit] See also
| Howard Designed Planes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DGA-1 | DGA-2 | DGA-3 (Pete) | DGA-4 (Mike) | DGA-5 (Ike) | DGA-6 (Mr Mulligan) | |
| DGA-7 | DGA-8 | DGA-9 | DGA-11 | DGA-12 | DGA-15 | DGA-18 |
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Graves, Darrell (1999). Howard DGA-6 "Mister Mulligan". Retrieved on February 6, 2007.
- ^ Howard DGA-6 Mister Mulligan. Arkansas Air Museum. Retrieved on February 6, 2007.
- ^ Benny Howard and His Darned Good Airplanes. Centennial of Flight. U. S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Retrieved on February 6, 2007.
- ^ Mister Mulligan. Fiddler's Green. Retrieved on February 6, 2007.
- ^ NTSB Identification: OAK78FVW01. NTSB aviation accident database. Retrieved on February 6, 2007.
- ^ Timeless Voices of Aviation "Voice of the Week" - Jim Younkin. Timeless Voices of Aviation. Retrieved on February 6, 2007.
