Jetrader - March/April 2010 - 32

The “Connie” By Bill Bath Correction: In “The Flying Boat” article in the January/February issue of Jetrader, the river in Lisbon into which the B314 crash-landed was incorrectly referred to as the Tigris River, instead of the Tagus River. Thanks to Fred Bearden for spotting the error. nine cylinder Wright J-5 radial of 225hp (168kw), which was eventually fitted with the NACA cowl to eliminate cylinder drag. The Vega was also modified to squeeze in six passengers, and the Wright J-5 engine was replaced by a P&W Wasp of 450hp (336kw). PHOTO COURTESY OF LOCKHEED-MARTIN CORPORATION. Back to Business Lockheed’s first all-metal twin-engine design was the L-10 series Electra. Designed by Hall Hibbard, it first flew in February 1934. Wind-tunnel work was undertaken at the University of Michigan where student assistant Clarence “Kelly” Johnson recommended two major design changes: replace the single fin with a twin unit and delete the oversize wing fillets. After the changes, Lockheed hired Johnson and he eventually became head of the skunk works and developed the SR-71 Blackbird. It was in a modified L-10 Electra that Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific while attempting a round-the-world flight. Lockheed’s original intention was to compete with the Boeing 247 and the Douglas DC-2. However, with only ten passengers, the L-10 Electra was clearly non competitive, and its numerous variants ended up in military service. There was a six-passenger L-12 model for corporate use, and in July 1937, a 12-passenger version (L-14) was ordered by Air Canada and a number of U.S. and European airlines, including Northwest, Continental, B.O.A.C., Aer Lingus and LOT Polish Airlines. I loved the Lockheed Constellation, or “Connie” as it’s commonly known, although I earned my living as a flight engineer on it for only 159 hours over a 15-month period. To a ground observer, in flight with its gear and flaps tucked away it was elegant; with its airfoilshaped fuselage and tail proportions, no other airplane could match it, except for the Concorde with its cruciform-wing platform. Allan Loughead, shortly after starting work as an airplane mechanic in 1910, decided he would get qualified to fly. In 1912 he and his brother, Malcolm, borrowed $4,000 and built a two-seat flying boat that they flew in 1913 hoping that people would be eager to take a $10 joyride; few came. Unable to repay the loan, the creditors seized the plane. It took the brothers two years to pay them off and repossess the Model G. In 1916 they founded the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara. There in 1918 they built a 10-seat flying boat—the world’s largest at that time. The U.S. Navy then gave them a contract to manufacture flying boats, which they did with the aid of 20-year-old draftsman Jack Northrop. Malcolm Loughead got fed up with people calling him Log–head, so he changed it to match the correct pronunciation—Lockheed—and founded the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Company in Detroit. Northrop moved to Donald Douglas, and then, in 1926 together with Allan Loughead, obtained financing to found the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. The four-passenger L-1 Vega was the first airplane produced and made its maiden flight on July 4, 1927. Designed by Northrop with a monocoque fuselage of plywood, molded in two halves then glued together for a smooth rigid structure with the high wing braced internally to eliminate external struts, it won every race and set altitude and round-the-world records with one-eyed Wiley Post at the controls. Amelia Earhart and Ruth Nichols also set a number of world endurance and altitude records in the Vega. The engine was the A Quick Aside Australian inventor Frederick Sidney Cotton developed an early color-film process and numbered George Eastman, Ian Fleming and Winston Churchill among his close friends. Just prior to WWII he equipped an L-12 Electra Junior with three F-24 cameras concealed behind sliding panels, plus a Leica in the wing—actuated by a button under the pilot’s seat. Posing as a film producer looking for locations, or as an archaeologist and accompanied by his secretary, he flew over German military installations 32 The ofﬁcial publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

Jetrader - March/April 2010

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