The American aeronautical engineer Donald Wills Douglas (1892-1981) developed and manufactured aircraft that dominated the world market for many years.

Donald Wills Douglas was born on April 6, 1892, in Brooklyn, New York. From an early age young Donald showed an interest in the then brief history of manned flight. After high school, he attended Trinity Chapel School for college, where he was editor of the school magazine. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1909, where he became enthusiastic about the infant field of aviation. During this time he even got to see the Wright Brothers demonstrating their latest plane. In 1912 he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; after two years of early wind tunnel research he became the first man to receive a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from that school.

Douglas first worked in 1915 at the Connecticut Aircraft Company on the...