McDonnell Aircraft was riding high on fighter production for the U.S. Navy and Air Force in the last half of the 1950s. Into the mix, for the first time, McDonnell proposed a small four-engine transport jet after preliminary design exploration in 1957.
The effort was a multi-million-dollar private enterprise undertaken by the company at its St. Louis plant. It had a military angle in the early stages. The U.S. Air Force sought a modern small transport under the designation UCX, or Experimental Utility Transport, and that gave rise to the McDonnell Model 119.
With the classic lines of a 1950s jetliner, McDonnell’s diminutive Model 119/220 earned style points, but no production orders. (Gerald Balzer collection)