Page 12 - World Airshow News Q3 2024

A tREASuRE OF tHE GOLDEN AGE By Jim Froneberger

Doug Rozendaal’s

Mister Mulligan

P ilot Doug “Rozy” Rozendaal has accumulated over 10,000 characteristics. Benny Howard, a pilot and self-taught aeronauti-

cal engineer, designed, built, and flew several of these success-
hours, flying over 250 different types of airplanes over the
ful Golden Age air racers – the Howard DGA-3, -4, and -5. He
course of his incredible aviation career. He’s been flying
airshows for 35 years and holds a surface level aerobatic
Howard eventually landed an airline job that prohibited him
waiver in several different types of World War II fighters. always said the letters DGA stood for “Damn Good Airplane.”
While Doug has always been best known for his warbird fly- from flying in the pylon air races of the day, so he turned his at-
ing, he’s now also performing in an airplane that harkens back to tention to the Bendix cross-country race. He envisioned a four-
the decade prior to World War II – an era known as the Golden place airplane that was fast enough to win the Bendix Trophy
Age of Aviation. As the current owner, caretaker, and pilot of Mis- race but could also carry enough fuel and fly at high-enough al-
ter Mulligan – a replica of one of the most famous air racers of the titudes to become a commercially viable product. The result was
Golden Age – Doug is now introducing airshow audiences across the Howard DGA-6.
North America to that fascinating era of our aviation heritage. Howard and co-pilot Gordon Israel would win the 1935 Ben-
dix race in the DGA-6 they dubbed Mister Mulligan, flying from
tHE GOLDEN AGE OF AVIAtION Burbank to Cleveland with only one fuel stop. They edged out the
In the late 1920s and 1930s, inspired by Charles A. Lind- legendary Roscoe Turner by only 23 seconds. After the Bendix
bergh’s solo flight to Paris, the world was captivated by aviation. victory, pilot Harold Neumann made a last-minute decision to
Air race pilots were as famous as professional athletes are today, enter Mister Mulligan in the Thompson Trophy race – ten laps
and that sport became the proving ground for many new aviation at low-altitude around a 10-mile closed pylon circuit. Neumann
technologies. came from behind to win, making Mister Mulligan the first air-
Until the mid-1930s, most air racers were dangerous single- plane to capture both the Bendix and Thompson Trophies in the
seat airplanes built for speed, with often questionable flight same year.

www.airshowmag.com 12 Quarter 3, 2024