National Air and Space Museum Archives

Myron "Dan" Beard Collection

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.2004.0048
Creators:
Beard, Myron Gould "Dan"
Dates:
bulk 1930s-1960s
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
17.44 Cubic feet
(16 record center boxes)
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of approximately 15 linear feet of material relating to the aviation career of Dan Beard. This material includes the following types of archival material: correspondence, corporate reports, publications, equipment manuals, notebooks, booklets, and photographs. Besides the technical engineering material, there are also reports on airport planning, bomb detection on passengers airplanes, and cloud seeding in the southwest.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Myron Gould "Dan" Beard (1896-1974) was born in Foochow, China, the son of American missionaries. Beard learned to fly at Kelly Field in 1918, and then went to the University of Michigan where he received an engineering degree in 1925. Beard was a diesel engineer for Ingersoll Rand Company for 1925-1927, before joining Fairchild Caminez Engine Company (later Fairchild Aviation Corporation) from 1927 until 1930, first as an Installation Engineer and then as a test pilot. In 1930, Beard joined American Airways (predecessor of American Airlines) and rose to the rank of chief test pilot, before his retirement from the airline in 1964. Beard accumulated over 6200 hours in all types of airplanes, most of them in engineering and experimental testing. Beard played a key role in the development of the Douglas DC-3, DC-4, DC-6 and DC-7 as test and acceptance pilot for American Airlines. During World War II, he served as Chief Military Engineering Pilot of American Airlines' Military Operations Department and he worked with teams surveying the North Atlantic routes. In 1943, Beard took a leave of absence from American Airlines to go to Brazil as a member of the Defense Supply Corporation mission, which had the mission to Americanize the Brazilian airlines which previously had been part of the German aerial network of South America.

Administration

Immediate Source of Acquisition
Mona Beard, Gift, 2004

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access.
Preferred Citation
Myron "Dan" Beard Collection, Accession 2004-0048, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Test pilots -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Douglas DC-3 Family Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Douglas DC-4 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Douglas DC-6 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Douglas DC-7 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Correspondence Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Reports Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Manuals Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Notebooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Fairchild Aircraft Corp Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
American Airlines Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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