Around 1965, NASA actively solicited proposals from several companies to design an aircraft that would be capable of transporting the Saturn II rocket booster— the center of the U.S. space program at the time — from California to its launch site in Florida.
Until then, NASA had relied on ships to carry the 166-foot-long, 40-foot-diameter Saturn II to Florida via the Panama Canal.
Several proposals were submitted, but the Dee Howard Co. was given the go-ahead to develop the DH-100 DBA.
The project eventually fell victim to bureaucratic infighting between government agencies, so a full-size DH-100 DBA was never built.
Despite its ungainly appearance, however, wind-tunnel tests showed the design had potential.
Dee knew that his DH-100 DBA (which stands, appropriately enough, for “Damn Big Airplane”) concept was sound and that, if built, it would fly. So he made an RC Model and it had its maiden flight on August 21, 2001, with designer Torn Prescott on the sticks.
