Damn Good Airplane: The Howard DGA

Richard “Rick” Maury grew up with airplanes in the blood. His father worked for the FAA and later United Airlines, flying for some 26 years, and Rick was airborne early: glider lessons at 13, solo at 14. By 1972 he was working at a glider airport and quickly worked through his ratings. At 18 he was towing gliders and banners. Then came the flying night freight out of Oakland, California, and later a season of agricultural flying that he says taught him “a lot of seat-of-your-pants flying experience.”

Maury’s airline career began in 1983 flying Twin Otters for Southern Jersey Airways, an Allegheny Commuter carrier. In 1985 he moved to Utica/Rome to captain the Swearingen Metro II for Empire Airlines as the carrier expanded from PA-31s to Metros and then Fokker F-28s. He upgraded to the F-28 months before Empire merged with Piedmont Airlines in 1986. He went on to enjoy a 38-year airline career, surviving two bankruptcies, multiple domicile changes, and six mergers, and he retired from American Airlines in 2023.

Even as his airline seniority climbed, Maury stayed rooted in general aviation. His first airplane was a 1946 Luscombe he bought at 16. He later built an RV-7, finished in 2015, which he still owns. In 2020 he and friend Bob Cottom found and bought a 1947 Stinson 108-2 in Kentucky; they hangar it at Rock Hill, South Carolina (KUZA).

A Dream Machine: The Howard DGA

Maury had always been drawn to vintage airplanes with round engines—Staggerwings, Howards, Stinson Reliants—and eventually set his sights on a Howard DGA. The Howard Aircraft Corporation, founded by Ben “Benny” Howard, produced custom-built DGA (Damn Good Airplane) cabin monoplanes after the success of the racing DGA-6 “Mister Mulligan,” which won both the Bendix and Thompson trophies in 1935. In 1937 Howard formed the company to produce commercial DGAs. The most popular model was the DGA-15: 520 DGA-15s were built in three variants—the DGA-15J with a Jacobs L6MB radial engine (330 hp, 246 kW), the DGA-15P with a Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine (450 hp, 336 kW), and the DGA-15W with a Wright Whirlwind J6-7 radial engine (350 hp, 261 kW).

Finding and Buying The Howard

Maury’s search led him to Barnstormers, where he found a Howard in Florida that could be traded for a Stinson 108—attractive since he already owned one. The airplane he researched was a decades-old restoration that was probably a great candidate for restoration, as it was flying. The airplane he eventually bought was a 2010 restoration. The previous owner/restorer, Presley Melton, had brought the airplane out of Washington on a semi-flatbed, complete with boxes of parts—many not Howard-specific—so Presley and others had to hunt down or fabricate components. Maury notes the struts, tanks, and landing gear are original; the wheel pants are fiberglass copies; skins were handmade by Jim Malnar and David Bunning.

The engine, originally from a Beaver, had been sent back to Covington Aircraft Engines in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when the air engine “started making metal.” Covington swapped in a replacement and overhauled the original, which Presley later mounted on the airplane. Some switches are not in their original positions, as well as some other details. Maury uses the hot rod vernacular of “Resto Mod.”

Maury joined the Howard Aircraft Foundation and gathered information from the community. After meeting many owners at AirVenture in 2023 and joining the Howard Facebook group in February 2024, a text from Presley led to a long phone conversation and, ultimately, negotiations. Presley’s asking price, which Maury initially thought was high, was later considered a bargain given Presley’s probable higher investment in the restoration. Comparable Howards were listed in the low-to-mid $300,000s, though Maury observed those may have less engine time.

Community and Advice

Maury praises the Howard Aircraft Foundation as a welcoming bunch of dedicated owners—many of them A&Ps who work on their own aircraft. He’s not an A&P (yet). He offers this advice to anyone who is thinking about buying a classic airplane: “If you don’t know how to work on an airplane, you’re going to be sorely disappointed in your vintage experience. In the past, I owned a Luscombe 8A, and, well, that’s not the same thing. There are still hundreds of them out there flying, and they still make parts for many models. It’s not the same thing as owning a Howard!”

Getting to Know You

On March 14, 2024, Maury and Bob Cottom flew to North Little Rock to meet Presley and see the Howard for the first time. Presley arranged for a highly experienced Howard instructor, Howard Bohl, to come out and check Maury out. That instructor, who’d been flying Howards since age 17 as a jump pilot out of Lake Elsinore, California, had three of the type and runs the Howard Foundation’s DGA-11—the only one in the world. Maury logged two landings on the first day; the next morning they beat the rain, ran patterns and air work, and after a few more landings the instructor signed him off with an encouraging “Go, go, go, have fun.”

The ferry home—about five hours to KUZA—doubled as a long, hands-on checkout with two landings. The Howard’s Pratt & Whitney R-985 develops 450 hp on takeoff and 400 hp continuously; takeoff power is limited to five minutes. Despite an 8.5-foot-diameter Hamilton Standard prop that might suggest heavy torque and p-factor, Maury found the airplane well balanced and surprisingly manageable on takeoff. He faced stiff winds and had to scud-run at 1,500 feet for much of the trip; his first landing in Tennessee was in a 20-knot crosswind and proved “kind of sporty.”

General characteristics

• Crew: One, pilot
• Capacity: Four passengers
• Length: 25 ft 0 in (7.62 m)
• Wingspan: 38 ft 0 in (11.58 m)
• Height: 8 ft 5 in (2.57 m)
• Wing area: 210 sq ft (19.5 sq m) (Note: the wingspan and chord are the same as the earlier DGA-11, but the DGA-15 area is calculated including the area displaced by the fuselage cabin)
• Airfoil: NACA 2R212 (reflexed)
• Empty weight: 3172 lb (1438 kg)
• Gross weight: 4500 lb (2041 kg)
• Useful load: 1328 lbs (602 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 4500 lb (2041 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 x Pratt & Whitney R-985SB Wasp Jr. radial engine, 450 hp (336 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 175 knots (201 mph, 323 km/h)
• Never exceed speed: 235 knots (270 mph, 437 km/h)
• Range: 800 n.m. (920 s.m., 1480 km)
• Service ceiling: 21,500 ft (6553 m)
• Rate of climb: 1560 fpm (7.9 m/s)

Handling Impressions

Maury compares the Howard to many tailwheel types: It’s heavy and stable rather than twitchy. “Being heavy helps,” he says, noting that larger airplanes tend to resist sudden changes in direction, though when they do move, they commit. The Howard won’t swap ends like some lighter taildraggers, but its mass requires disciplined handling within narrow parameters.

Hands-On Ownership

Maury also learned—and now advises—that vintage ownership isn’t for the mechanically faint of heart. Many Howard owners are deeply involved in maintenance, with about 90% doing much of their own work and many being A&Ps. If you can’t wrench, he warns, you’ll be disappointed: The Howard uses large hardware (half-inch drive tools and 7/8, 3/4, or 1-inch sockets), not the smaller sizes common on run-of-the-mill singles. Parts can be scarce, and restorations often require fabrication or long hunts through the community for originals or acceptable substitutes.

A New Chapter

Beyond the specs and nuts-and-bolts, Maury emphasizes the human side of the acquisition: “The greatest thing about this experience is that I made two new really good friends, along with a bunch of great people in the Howard Aircraft Foundation and vintage aircraft community. Presley and I stay connected, because, as far as I’m concerned, this is still his airplane.” He acknowledges the deep craftsmanship behind the restoration and the open-hearted community that keeps these “Damn Good Airplanes” flying.

She Handles Well, But…

“The landing gear is not very forgiving,” Maury admits. “You get two bounces with it because the landing gear has oleo struts and all the oil drains out of those struts on that second landing. Now you’re on the taxi springs which have no damping at all. If you try to save it after the second one, you run the risk of breaking the gear and damaging the aircraft structure. That is why it’s best to go around and let the strut extend and let all the oil come back down toward where it’s now damping the landing gear again.”

He adds that it’s never a bad decision to go around, although it can be a handful on the go-around because the Howard requires 2,000 rpm to go around, and the redline is 2,300 rpm. Maury concludes, “That just gives you a 300-rpm cushion, because you must not overspeed these engines. We’ve used 30 inches of manifold pressure on the go-around instead of 36, which is maximum, with climb-out power, which is 400 hp, so we’ve got more than enough horsepower.”

Overall, Maury says the Howard is an honest airplane. He notes, “There are no real quirks about it. It’s got a thin short wing, with high wing loading on it. That’s why it’s fast. Benny Howard felt strongly that he wanted the fuel in the belly of all his airplanes because he didn’t want anybody on a ladder servicing his airplane. I really like that feature, although it does make fueling the airplane cleanly a challenge because these days, all the fuel hoses are straight. So, we have an adapter that goes in there and bends down the tube more cleanly.”

Maury enjoyed a truly golden moment when he brought the Howard to AirVenture in July 2024. He says, “Presley and I were walking to breakfast one morning, when he said to me, ‘You know, I’m sure proud that you bought my airplane!’ And that’s as high a compliment as you get!”