1. Carl Anson Cover was the chief test pilot and first to fly the Douglas Aircraft Company DC-1, DC-2, DC-3, DC-4, and the DC-5 airliners.
26 Facts About Carl Cover
1. 2.
Carl Cover was born on 26 April 1893, to Hugh and Helen Carl Cover in Roxbury, Pennsylvania.
3.
Carl Cover attended high school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and worked as a millwright machinist at Bethlehem Steel, where his father was a foreman.
4.
Carl Cover enlisted in the US Army on 1 August 1917, and was sent to Kelly Field in San Antonio for pilot training.
5.
Carl Cover was initially assigned to the 50th Aero Squadron, but was transferred to the 110th Aero Squadron later that same month.
6.
Carl Cover was sent to the Military School of Aeronautics at UC Berkeley in November 1917.
7.
Carl Cover was commissioned as a Lieutenant in June 1918, and was assigned to Brooks Field as an instructor.
8.
In 1923, Carl Cover was stationed at Langley Field in Virginia.
9.
In 1929, Carl Cover was flying for the Army Reserves in Honolulu, Hawaii.
10.
On 11 November 1929, Elliott and Carl Cover flew Inter-Island Airways' Sikorsky S-38 amphibious seaplanes in formation from Honolulu to Maui, then on to Hilo, introducing air travel to the residents and visitors of Hawaii.
11.
Major Carl Cover left the Army and Inter-Island Airways in 1930 to become a test pilot for the Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California.
12.
Carl Cover soon became the Chief Test Pilot and Vice President of Sales, and eventually Senior Vice President and general manager of Douglas Aircraft.
13.
On 1 July 1933, Carl Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-1.
14.
Shortly after take-off both engines quit; Carl Cover pushed the nose over and the engines re-started.
15.
Carl Cover safely managed to get the airplane back on the ground after a short 12-minute flight, to find the carburetors had been installed backwards.
16.
On 11 May 1934, Carl Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-2.
17.
On 17 December 1935, Carl Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-3.
18.
On 7 June 1938, Carl Cover flew the first test flight of the four-engine DC-4.
19.
Two days later, Carl Cover flew the plane on a demonstration flight for United Airlines with Orville Wright onboard.
20.
On 20 February 1939 Carl Cover flew the first test flight of the DC-5.
21.
Carl Cover was made Colonel and put in charge of United States Air Force Plant 6 at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Georgia.
22.
Carl Cover was released from active duty in August 1944.
23.
In September 1944, Carl Cover accepted an offer from Bell Aircraft as Vice President and the civilian general manager of Plant 6.
24.
On 27 November 1944, Carl Cover died in a plane crash while trying to land during a snow storm in Dayton, Ohio.
25.
Carl Cover is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
26.
Carl Cover's abilities encompass all phases from engineering and flight test to sales direction and over-all organization.