Edmond R. Doak; Aviation Pioneer Designed Early Vertical Takeoff Plane

Edmond R. Doak, who was a stockroom worker for aviation pioneer Glenn Martin at age 15 and 45 years later became a pioneer in his own right when his vertical takeoff and landing plane made a successful but short-lived debut, is dead.

Doak was 88 when he died in Torrance Oct. 20.

A native of San Antonio who traced his first interest in flight to watching storm funnels move across the nearby prairies, Doak came to Los Angeles in 1910 and attended Polytechnic High School while working to help support his family.

He met Martin at an early flight show near the Dominguez Hills and was hired as a general stock and errand boy. After Martin moved his aviation company to Cleveland, Doak joined Donald Douglas’ young firm as a purchasing agent, building his own plane at nights and on weekends.

He stayed with Douglas until 1935 and then went to work at North American, rejoining Douglas as a manager at Northrop, then a Douglas subsidiary.

In 1939 he formed Doak Aircraft in Torrance and built plywood training planes until the start of World War II, when he began manufacturing metal components for larger planes. At one time he had as many as 4,000 employees, most of them women.

After the war Doak began to experiment with vertical takeoff and landing craft, using ducted motors to lift the plane which then would tilt forward to power level flight.

The craft made its debut at Torrance Municipal Airport and at Edwards Air Force Base in 1958.

Despite initial widespread interest, the Army later turned the VTOL project over to NASA and it never went into production.