Launchpad McQuack

"Any crash you can walk away from is a good crash!"

- Launchpad McQuack Launchpad McQuack is a pilot introduced in Disney's 1987-90 television series DuckTales and later featured in its 1991-92 spin-off Darkwing Duck. He works for Scrooge McDuck as his pilot and later became Darkwing Duck's sidekick, first as such in the series' two-part pilot "Darkly Dawns the Duck". He is also a scoutmaster of the Junior Woodchucks with Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby and Doofus Drake. He also has a remarkable and uncanny ability to almost always crash-land his planes.

Personality
Launchpad has a kind nature, but when his friends are threatened or in trouble, he can and will stand up for himself and those close to him. At times, he can be clumsy, but usually, his clumsiness pays off and enables him to (inadvertently) save the day.

DuckTales
Launchpad's first appearance was in Part 3 of the pilot movie "Treasure of the Golden Suns," where he is hired by Gyro Gearloose and Scrooge McDuck to fly the latter to the Land of the Golden Suns in Gyro's newest helicopter, the Condor. Since then, he made recurring appearances in many episodes, mainly when Scrooge needed a pilot to fly him somewhere and could not look anywhere else, as Launchpad has worked for Scrooge's favorite price, which was next to nothing.

Launchpad is known to be best friends with a youngster named Doofus Drake, a roly-poly duckling who tags along with him on many adventures and has been considered by Launchpad to be his sidekick. Doofus looks up to Launchpad like a big brother and considers him a great pilot and a real hero.

According to the episode "Launchpad's First Crash", Launchpad built his first plane, the Sun Chaser, by himself, and he was hired by Scrooge McDuck as a youngster to fly to the Thick-of-It Rain Forest to help him locate the Lost City of Diamonds. At that point, Launchpad had a rate: 10 cents per mile, but he lowered it to a penny per mile to suit Scrooge. Since that adventure, Launchpad and Scrooge became an inseparable team.

Launchpad has had his chance to be a hero on many counts, such as in "Armstrong", when Scrooge and Gyro were held captive by Gyro's new robot Armstrong, who was seizing control of the world, one Armed Forces base at a time. Huey, Dewey, and Louie raced to Launchpad's place to get his help when they discovered that they needed backup to stop Armstrong. Launchpad offered to fly them in aboard his Joyrider, which, according to Launchpad, had "no fancy electronics" within, so Armstrong couldn't take control of it. After crashing atop Gyro's barn (which is what he did best), Launchpad tried to sneak in, but was hindered by Armstrong. A chase ensued and ended as Launchpad tried to escape to his plane, but was grabbed at the ankle by Armstrong. As he was pulled down, Launchpad grabbed the release lever for his Joyrider's water tank and that water cascaded on Armstrong and shorted him out.

During the episode "Top Duck", Launchpad revealed that his family was a group of stunt performers called The Flying McQuacks, but Launchpad always felt that he disappointed his family and, as such, he ran away to pursue his dream of being the best pilot in the world. When his family wrote him and said that they were coming to visit, Launchpad felt that he couldn't face them, especially his father Ripcord, because he believed that his father was the reason he had run away from home. Near the end, the Flying McQuacks helped Launchpad and Scrooge defeat the Beagle Boys and save the Money Bin. Ripcord (finally) told his son that he was proud of him (but Launchpad had never let him finish any of his sentences).

Launchpad's adventures have also revealed the story of his great-great-grandfather General Rhubarb McQuack, a Confederacy flag officer who he heard was the war hero that won the Battle of Duckridge—-but in reality, Rhubarb had lost that famous battle and Launchpad was fated to lose its reenactment when Duckridge decided to celebrate the anniversary of the city's Civil War. Although Launchpad clearly defends his family, he quickly becomes the subject of scorn from the inhabitants of Duckridge due to being a descendant of Rhubarb McQuack. However, after meeting the actual soldiers who participated in the war under the service of General Rhubarb, Launchpad, Doofus and Huey, Dewey & Louie decided to give the long-forgotten army (who went by the name of "McQuack's Marauders") a chance to redeem themselves. (This was partly due to the fact that the veterans were hiding in the mountains due to the anti-Southern attitude that prevailed after the war and also that Doofus and Huey learn that the person in charge of the reenactment is actually a ruthless businessman who seeks to profit from the war memories, namely through sale of souvenirs.) During the reenactment, the nephews and Doofus rigged it so that the actual Marauders participated, taking on the businessman and his actors who played the Union soldiers, although they mostly fought with shock tactics and throwing pies. Even though Launchpad almost cost McQuack's Marauders their redemption, the tide turned in their favor when he had sent their battle vessel, known as the "Merryquack", rolling into battle and overwhelming the enemy. Afterwards, Doofus and the nephews are glad to see that Launchpad has redeemed his family's honor and the citizens of Duckridge are humbled to learn that Confederate veterans are still alive, to which they vow never again to ridicule the war while allowing the veterans to rejoin society, so that they can retire in honor.

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
Launchpad serves a minor role as Scrooge's pilot to the ruins of Collie Baba (a parody of Ali Baba), where Scrooge is after the legendary thief's treasure.

Darkwing Duck
When Launchpad met the legendary crimefighter, Darkwing Duck, he revealed that he was Darkwing's number-one fan and offered to be the crimefighter's sidekick. At the time, Darkwing declared that he was a loner as a superhero and didn't need any help. However, after Gosalyn had been kidnapped by Taurus Bullba—Darkwing's first real enemy—Launchpad revealed his newest plane, the Thunderquack, which they used to invade Bullba's airship and rescue Gosalyn. The Thunderquack served as Darkwing's personal plane after Darkwing dubbed Launchpad his true sidekick.

Since he became Darkwing's sidekick, Launchpad only served as Darkwing's pilot and almost nothing else. After much arguing, Darkwing was forced to switch roles with Launchpad for a day in the episode "Water Way To Go", after S.H.U.S.H. called Darkwing to investigate a plot by F.O.W.L. to flood the desert of Oil-rabia and steal its riches. The twosome eventually saved the Princess of the kingdom and foiled the evil plot, and Darkwing accepted being a sidekick as not bad (for a fleeting few moments).

In the episode "U.F. Foe", Launchpad revealed that he had a fear of flying as a young duckling, and he made friends with a female alien named Tia, who helped him overcome this fear. During a family vacation that ended up in the middle of nowhere, Tia had returned to declare her engagement to Launchpad, unknown to her that her vizier had planned to usurp her throne with a robotic duplicate of Launchpad. As part of the plan, Darkwing's brain was removed so that his body would become a literally mindless slave and lead Launchpad into certain doom. In the end, after exposing the coup, Launchpad and Darkwing had their memories erased of meeting Tia, and Tia decided to settle down with Launchpad's clone.

Raw Toonage
Launchpad made a few appearances in Disney's Raw Toonage shorts, including hosting one episode when he showed lessons in flying.

Printed media
Launchpad appeared in both of the DuckTales comic books published by Gladstone Publishing and Disney Comics, and again in the Darkwing Duck mini-series published by Disney Comics. However, the implosion of Disney Comics prevented the latter comic book series from having a longer lifespan. After that, DuckTales and Darkwing Duck stories featuring Launchpad were also printed in the magazine Disney Adventures, as well as new Darkwing stories in Marvel's Disney Afternoon comic book.

From 2007 to 2011, Gemstone Publishing and Boom! Studios printed several old DuckTales stories in the pages of Uncle Scrooge, many of which had previously never been published in the United States. In these translated-to-English printings of the stories, Launchpad occasionally mentioned his adventures with Darkwing Duck to Scrooge and the others, implying that at some point, he left St. Canard and returned to his job as a pilot in Duckburg. (Ironically, several of the stories to include such dialogue had originally been written before Darkwing Duck originally premiered.)

At the same time, Launchpad and Darkwing also appeared in Boom!'s new Darkwing Duck comic book. In the series, Drake has quit the superhero business for a cubicle job at the Quackwerks company, which produces robotic police enforcers, and he is no longer speaking to Launchpad, ever since an incident where he accidentally lead Negaduck to discover his identity. But they soon reunite and return to hero work when they find out that things aren't as they seem at Quackwerks and some of their old enemies start working together again. After defeating Taurus Bulba again, who was revealed to be behind Quackwerks all along in a scheme to control the city, Darkwing returns to the public spotlight again and Scrooge McDuck hands over control of Quackwerks to Launchpad. Later in the series, Launchpad ends up running for mayor of St. Canard against Darkwing and wins, but is ousted as mayor after somehow crashing the entire city. After months of repairing St. Canard, Launchpad then also steps down as the CEO of Quackwerks, naming the company's former head of security, Maury Thwackstein, as his replacement.

Launchpad also returned in Boom!'s short-lived DuckTales comic book where he made his usual crashing shenanigans and acted once again as Scrooge's pilot. Due to Launchpad appearing in both it and the Darkwing Duck comic, it is unclear when the first arc, "Rightful Owners", is supposed to take place in the chronology of the Darkwing comic (due to each of the Darkwing comic's arcs continuing from the previous one). But since the "Dangerous Currency" arc that closed both comics is considered non-canon (as it was never approved by Disney), it is likely that "Rightful Owners", and Launchpad's involvement in the story, is also non-canon.

Disney Parks
Launchpad McQuack was a regularly meetable character in the Disney parks during the time when DuckTales and Darkwing Duck were originally airing. He is not as much of a regular at the parks anymore, but he can still be found on rare occasions. Currently, he's mainly found at Disneyland Paris, sometimes at the Disneyland Hotel and more often at the Hotel New York in addition to making occasional rare appearances at Epcot.

Mickey's Magical TV World
Launchpad appeared in the former Magic Kingdom show where he closed the door of Scrooge's vault, because he thought that no one was home. When Darkwing Duck replaced the Gummi Bears, Launchpad came to help him with the box trick. Then after he, Scrooge, and C.J. sang the DuckTales theme song, he closed the vault door again when they got inside the vault. In 1992, when Goof Troop replaced DuckTales in The Disney Afternoon, he and Scrooge were cut, which made Darkwing and C.J. do the box trick without him. But he returned to the show in 1993 to help Darkwing again.

The Disney Afternoon Live!: Plane Crazy
Launchpad starred in the Plane Crazy stage show that ran at Disneyland as part of Disney Afternoon Avenue in 1991. In the stage show, he is recruited along with Chip 'n' Dale and Baloo to recover the X-22 spy jet when it is stolen by Don Karnage and Fat Cat. At one point in the show, Launchpad performs some cloud-surfing in an attempt to battle the two villains. (It should be noted, though, that while TaleSpin has been established to be set in the same fictional universe as DuckTales and Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers, it actually takes place about fifty years before those two shows, so this crossover is likely non-canon.)

Fantasmic!
Launchpad made occasional appearances on the riverboat at the end of the Disneyland version of Fantasmic!