One of the things that makes visiting a museum especially interesting is discovering something that you did not expect to see. In this case, I was at the Museum of Flying at the Santa Monica Airport and came across this amazing display. This is the actual desk that Donald Douglas used to design his famous airplanes. You can imagine him here, working on drawings, for the DC3 and calculating the aerodynamics.
The Santa Monica Airport is the site of the Douglas Aircraft factory. While the museum covers airplanes from many different manufacturers, there is a little emphasis on the Douglas company. It is only right! After your examine the Douglas Desk, find the photographs of the airport during World War II.
Special effects experts and scenery builders from the nearby Hollywood movie studios created a spectacular camouflage system. The entire airport was covered with netting. This netting was supported by hundreds of poles and the various buildings on the grounds. The top of the nets were “decorated” with visual elements representing the residential neighborhoods of Santa Monica. It was complete with streets, foliage, and structures.
Could it be that some of the plans for the netting was examined on this desk?