Howard DBA – NASA’s ‘Damn Big Airplane’ That Almost Changed Flight
In the height of the 1960s space race, NASA needed to move Saturn V rocket stages - and fast. Dee Howard’s bold answer was the DH‑100 DBA: a gargantuan turboprop aircraft with a 40‑foot‑diameter cargo bay, eight to ten engines, and a cockpit perched above a clam-shell fuselage. Wind‑tunnel tests proved the concept viable—but bureaucracy won. No full-scale DBA was ever built. This video dives deep into the twisted tale of ambition, innovation, and why an icon of transport was grounded before it began.