Aircraft manufacturer, and pioneer in space technology, born in Denver, Colorado, USA. After studying aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he became a test pilot, stress analyst, and chief engineer, before setting up his own company in 1928. This led to the founding of the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (1939), which was to produce successful military and naval aircraft, including the famous F-4 Phantom. In 1967 the company was merged with the Douglas Co, and became the McDonnell Douglas Corporation.
James Smith McDonnell (April 9, 1899 - August 22, 1980) was an aviation pioneer and founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, later McDonnell Douglas. He resigned from Martin in 1938 and founded McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1939. McDonnell Foundation to "improve the quality of life," and does so by contributing to the generation of new knowledge through its support of research and scholarship.
McDonnell was, by some accounts, a believer in the occult, and many of his aircraft were given names of supernatural beings or rituals (such as phantom, demon, goblin, banshee, and voodoo).
The McDonnell corporate heritage now rests with Boeing which purchased McDonnell Douglas, including the St. Louis plant that produces the F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Hornet / F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters.
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