Launchpad's dad, Ripcord McQuack, is patterned after John Wayne. His mannerisms, speech pattern, and even his catch phrase comes from the Duke.
While Launchpad has often been considered a duck, many of his physical characteristics differ considerably from most ducks in the series. For instance, he has a huge and deep bill, with what appears to be a large pouch on the bottom part of his bill. He is also much taller and burlier than other ducks in the series. This has led to speculation that Launchpad is not a duck, but actually a pelican (thus explaining many of these characteristics). This episode, may lend some credence to this theory, as it contains the first glimpses of his family. While Launchpad's mother and his his sister, Loopey, are diminutive with small bills and feet, like every other female duck in the series, his father, Ripcord, appears to be a different species (a Pelican, specifically). Like Launchpad, he is burly with a distended bill; however, Ripcord is even larger, and his lower bill has a larger pouch, than even Launchpad. It seems likely that Ripcord is a pelican and that Launchpad is the product of a mixed marriage (duck and pelican).