Missouri Bicentennial: James S. McDonnell

This is my fourteenth article about notable Missouri people and events for the state’s bicentennial. I’m finally getting around to writing about an engineer.

James S. McDonnell was born in Colorado on April 9, 1899. His family moved to Arkansas when he was young, and he graduated from high school in Little Rock. He attended Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering. He enrolled in the Army Air Service Reserve Officer Training Corp at MIT, he serve a year of active duty from 1923-1924.

McDonnell worked for several aviation companies early in his career. He started at Stout Metal Airplane, at the time a division of Ford Motor Company. He designed the “Milwaukee Maiden” for Hamilton Metalplane Company. Designed to haul mail, it was the first all-metal aircraft certified in the United States. He then moved on to be chief designer at the Huff Daland Airplane Company. He briefly ran his own company from 1928 to 1931, but the Great Depression forced him close up his shop and seek work elsewhere. He worked for the Great Lakes Aircraft Company and the Glen L. Martin Company.

Lockheed Martin Corporation is a successor to The Martin Company. Martin was a launch pad for successful aviation entrepreneurs. In addition to McDonnel, Martin employed Donald Douglas, who later founded Douglas Aircraft Company. William Boeing learned to fly at the Glenn L. Martin Flying School in Los Angeles, and the first airplane he bought was a Martin.

McDonnel tried his hand at starting a company again. He founded McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1939 with headquarters in St. Louis. The city has a history of aviation going back to the early days for the industry. Col. Albert Berry completed the first parachute jump from an airplane over Jefferson Barracks in 1912. The Missouri Aeronautical Society Balloon School, founded in 1917 to train balloonists for World War I, was the first training center recognized by the War Department for preparing pilots for the Army Aeronautical Corp. Scott Air Force Base was also created around this time to train pilots for the war, a role it reprised in World War II. Charles Lindbergh was an airmail pilot for the St. Louis-based Robertson Aircraft Company, and a group of St. Louis businessmen funded his solo transatlantic in 1927.

Mary Elizabeth Finney married McDonnell in 1934. They had two children. Their second son, John Finney McDonell studied engineering at Princeton and worked at the company his father founded, eventually becoming chairman. (John succeeded his cousin, Sanford McDonnell in the role as chairman. Sanford was also an Princeton engineering graduate who worked his way up through the company.) Mary passed away in 1949.

The company McDonnell founded was soon making fighter aircraft for the Air Force and Navy. He designed the Phantom, which was the first jet to operate from an aircraft carrier in 1946. He developed a number of military aircraft during World War II and subsequent American wars. His F-4 Phantom II fighter was widely used by the Air Force and Navy during the Vietnam War. It also built the Mercury and Gemini space capsules. The Mercury Project, which ran from 1958 to 1963, was the first American manned spaceflight program. McDonnell Aircraft made 20 production Mercury capsules, and a number of nonfunctioning craft designed for various types of testing. Of the 20 production capsules, five were not flown and two were destroyed in testing. One, Spacecraft No. 11, sank in the Atlantic Ocean, where it sat on the bottom for 38 years before it was recovered. The Gemini Project ran from 1961 to 1966. Jonh McDonnell worked as a strengths engineer on the project. Gemini was intended to develop techniques that could be used for the Apollo moon landings. Elliot See and Charles Basset, astronauts selected for the Gemini program, died in an airplane crash at Lambert Field. The two had flown to St. Louis to participate in simulator training.

Priscilla Brush Forney became McDonnell’s second wife in 1956. He adopted her three children from a previous marriage.

McDonnell Aircraft merged with Douglas Aircraft to form McDonnell Douglas in 1967. The company continued to build aircraft and systems for the military and space program.  It merged with Boeing in 1997.

In addition to his aviation career, McDonnel took an interest in international affairs and security. He served as chairman of the United Nations Association of the United States. He was also a member of the Atlantic Council of the United States, the Advisory Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Industry Advisory Board at the Department of Defense.

McDonnell passed away on August 1, 1980. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

 He received the Robert J. Collier Trophy from the National Aeronautic Association in 1966 for his contributions to air and space vehicles. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1967.The National Aviation Hall of Fame inducted him in 1977. In 1980, the National Academy of Science presented him the NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering.

There are several tributes to McDonnell around the St. Louis area: McDonnell Park in St. Louis County, McDonnell Planetarium in the St. Louis Science Center, McDonnell Hall at Washington University and James S. McDonnell Boulevard at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport. The St. Louis-based James S. McConnell Foundation sponsors scientific research in behavior, cognition and systems science. The James S. McDonnell Prologue Room at the Boeing headquarters in St. Louis exhibits the company’s history in aviation and space, including full size models of the Mercury and Gemini capsules as well as models of military and commercial aircraft. The exhibit is open for tours (it was closed because of the COVID pandemic, so check before you plan your trip). He is also commemorated at Princeton University with McDonnell Hall and six endowed professorships.

Missouri has been home to many notable engineers. Some of them, in addition to McDonnell, are Ernest Black, Clinton Burns, James Eads, Ulysses Grant, Robert McDonnell and Tom Veatch.