Born at Salamanca NY, December 29, 1884. Died at Pacific Palisades CA, May 26, 1955.
Charles Healy Day built his first aircraft in 1909, working with Glenn L Martin. Day is credited with developing the technique of using laminated wood to make propellers, thus increasing their strength. In 1910 he built and flew the nation’s first tractor biplane, an aircraft of his own design. He worked off and on with Martin until 1915, when he was made vice-president and chief design engineer of the Sloane Airplane Company, soon to become the Standard Aircraft Corporation. There he designed and built several aircraft leading to the famous Standard J-1 used extensively for pilot training in World War I, flying the mail, and for barnstorming in the 1920s. The J-1’s large forward cockpit held two passengers to double the pilot’s revenue per flight. It was also the aircraft used by Otto Timm in 1922 to give a young Charles Lindbergh his first taste of flying.
In the early 1920s, Day worked as an aviation consultant, and for a short time with Elektron Metals Corporation of America, developing and promoting the use of magnesium alloys in the US aircraft industry. For two years he was a consultant on light metals to the German Chemical Trust, then in 1926 he teamed up with Ivan Gates, of the Famous Gates Flying Circus, to form the Gates-Day Aircraft Company in Paterson NJ, reorganized in 1928 as the New Standard Aircraft Corporation. During that time, Day designed his most famous and enduring aircraft, the GD-24, which evolved into the D-25 and many variants, all of which had a huge front cockpit capable of carrying up to five passengers or a big load of bootleg whiskey. Needless to say, it became a mainstay of barnstormers and smugglers. The last variant of the design was built in 1942 by White Aircraft Corporation for the Department of Agriculture, and a few are still flying today.
In 1931 Day resigned his position as president of Standard Aircraft, built a small open-cockpit trainer he called the Day Model A and with his wife, Gladys, flew it around the world—excepting oceans, where it went more logically by boat. Then in 1934, after a couple of years of consulting, he accepted an offer from Chiang Kai-Shek, head of the Canton Government in China, to organize and operate an aircraft factory at Shiuchow. He got the factory up and operating in minimum time, but by 1937 it was being targeted by Japanese bombers. To defend against the bombings, Day moved his manufacturing equipment into bamboo sheds, scattered several miles into the forest. Operating under those primitive conditions, he was able to continue production of the Fushin trainer, Curtiss Hawks under license, and Russian I-15 pursuits. Practically all of the 400 employees of that factory had no previous experience with aircraft and had to be trained by Day and his staff.
In 1940, after many harrowing experiences, the factory was cut off from supplies needed to continue operation, and the Days left China. Back in New York, he was a recognized aircraft production expert. That, coupled with his recent experiences in China, put him in great demand for the lecture circuit. He wrote articles and made several speeches on the Japanese Air capabilities. Late in 1940, he became Supervisor of Aircraft Production, Department of Munitions and Supply, Ottawa, Canada.
After Pearl Harbor he was commissioned a major in the Army Air Corps and was stationed at Wellston Air Depot, now Robins AFB, GA. He resigned his commission in November 1942 to head the Glenn L Martin Modification Center at Omaha, where he remained until 1945. By that time he was having some health problems, but continued working as an aviation consultant until his death at his home.
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