Meet the Howards

摘要

Happy hour at the siren airport in far northwest Wisconsin. On the ramp, sitting beneath the high wings of half a dozen 1940s Howard airplanes, a growing, graying, and security-badge-less gang is imbibing. It's an homage of sorts. Long before he gained fame building racers in the 1930s, including the revered Mr. Mulligan, Benny Howard got his start in the airplane business by modifying a World War Ⅰ biplane trainer to carry extra cases of hooch for Prohibition-era bootleggers. One very impressed customer dubbed it a "damned good airplane," and from then on, Howard used the designation "DGA" for all his designs.