Warbird Information Exchange

McDonnell Aircraft Corp., a Boeing heritage company, was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1939 by James S. McDonnell, affectionately called Mr. Mac by his employees whom he called his teammates. McDonnell would see great success in the late 1940s as the producer of the first U.S. Navy carrier fighter jet and successor designs throughout the 1950s and 1960s. But it was World War II that gave McDonnell its start with contracts from larger, more established aircraft manufacturers like Boeing heritage company Douglas Aircraft.
AT-12 Gunner Bomber Trainer in flight in 1944. (Boeing Archives photo)
McDonnell Memphis production facility during World War II. (Boeing Archives photo)
Beginning of January 1944 article in Wings magazine discussing McDonnell’s AT-21 production approach. (Boeing Archives photo)

McDonnell’s first major production orders came from Douglas Aircraft for C-47 Skytrain transport tail assemblies and A-20 Havoc medium bomber engine cowlings. Production space was already running out when the company received an order from the Army Air Forces (AAF) for their first airplane production contract. The AT-21 Gunner, designed by Fairchild Aircraft, was a trainer aircraft for Army bomber crews. McDonnell was one of two companies selected in addition to Fairchild to help produce the AT-21 at a new government plant in Memphis, Tenn. in 1942.

The AT-21 was an example of aircraft companies sharing production in order to meet the incredibly high production rates demanded by the war. Even though McDonnell did not design the AT-21, it gave the company valuable experience in aircraft production and delivery processes. The war saw unprecedented levels of aircraft production that have yet to be repeated. Learn more about World War II aircraft production here.
Mr. Mac in AT-21 cockpit section at McDonnell’s Memphis assembly line, 1944. (Boeing Archives photo)
AT-21 Manufacturing Schedule from Wings article. (Boeing Archives photo)

The AT-21 used wood as its primary structural material due to metal shortages early in the war. One of the factors that drove Fairchild’s selection was an innovative new way to fabricate wooden parts called the Duramold plastic laminating process. McDonnell had developed its own laminated paper plastic called Structomold that had structural properties similar to metal and was used to produce the gunner turret seat for the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. McDonnell had also researched wooden fabrication techniques and experimented with a new material made of phenol-formaldehyde impregnated wood pulp, which was a factor in McDonnell’s selection for the AT-21 production contract.

The Memphis facility gave McDonnell the opportunity to learn the new techniques of aircraft mass production, including plant layout, schedules, and system control. This was valuable experience since aircraft before the war were typically built individually by hand. After much hard work and lessons learned, the first flight of the first McDonnell-built AT-21 took place on Jan. 13, 1944.
AT-21 production sequence from McDonnell family day brochure. (Boeing Archives photo)
AT-21 Assembly line in Memphis, May 1944. (Boeing Archives photo)
AT-21 first flight article in McDonnell Bulletin company newsletter, January 1944. (Boeing Archives photo)

McDonnell had big plans for a big future at the Memphis facility. By Dec. 1944, McDonnell delivered 30 AT-21s to the AAF. However, further production was curtailed when the Army found that the AT-21 did not meet requirements, driven by a change in AAF doctrine to train bomber crews in actual bomber aircraft instead of trainer aircraft. By that time McDonnell received a contract to produce pressurized fuselage sections for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber, which were manufactured at the Memphis facility until its closure in October 1945, just a few months after the end of World War II. The big future would not be in Memphis.

Although the closure of the Memphis facility resulted in a shrinkage of McDonnell’s overall footprint, it would be a temporary situation. The end of World War II also marked the departure of Curtiss-Wright from St. Louis, which opened the opportunity for McDonnell to move into the large plant that would become known as Building 2 and the home of McDonnell and eventually Boeing’s final assembly for multiple models of jet fighters into the 21st century.

By Paul Segura

Telegram from Mr. Mac to the Memphis team congratulating them on the delivery of the first McDonnell-built AT-21 to the Army Air Forces, February 1944. (Boeing Archives photo)
Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper article discussing B-29 fuselage subassembly production at the McDonnell facility, December 1944. (Boeing Archives photo)

McDonnell advertisement saluting Memphis and its post-war future. The end of the war in late 1945 would see the closure of the Memphis facility. (Boeing Archives photo)