Tag Archives: Lockheed Aircraft Company

13 April 1931

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Ruth Nichols with her Lockheed Vega. Her records are painted on the engine cowling. (FAI)
Ruth Nichols with the Lockheed Vega. Her records are painted on the engine cowling. (FAI)

13 April 1931: Ruth Rowland Nichols set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Speed Record of 338.99 kilometers per hour (210.64 miles per hour) over a 3 kilometer course at Carlton, Minnesota.¹

Nichols’ airplane was a 1928 Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special, serial number 619, registered NR496M, and owned by Powell Crosley, Jr. He had named the airplane The New Cincinnati.

Ruth Nichols Sets Air Mark With 210.65 Miles an Hour

New York Girl on One Dash Attains 226.88 Miles Over measured Course at Detroit

     Detroit, April 13.—All records for airplane speed with a woman pilot were shattered today when Miss Ruth Nichols, Rye, New York, raced over the three kilometer course at Grosse Ile an an average speed of 210.65 miles an hour. Amelia Earhart Putnam formerly held the record at 181.1 miles per hour.²

     Miss Nichols, using a Lockheed Vega plane, powered with a Wasp motor, made four flights over the measured course. On one dash she attained a speed of 226.88 miles an hour.

Hazardous Flight

     The course, one of these recognized in the United States, is laid out along the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad Line. In addition to the rails for guide lines, white strips of cloth marked the route.

     After a few warm-up turns over the course Miss Nichols signalled she was ready. The flight was doubly hazardous because she was forced to fly extremely low.

     The plane used was the same in which she set the altitude record recently eclipsed by Miss Elinor Smith.³

     Miss Nichols, who in the last few months had shattered about all the aviation records there are for women—although her altitude record was broken by Elinor Smith—was the main feature of the aviation show.

     There was a good crowd to cheer the tall, smiling Rye woman when she climbed from her record-breaking plane.

     “It really isn’t anything to do,” she said. “All a girl needs is a good ship and nerve.”

May Fly the Atlantic

     She sensed her speed, followed strips of white cloth which outlined teh course, and in a very matter of fact way established the record.

     She was asked concerning reports she planned a transatlantic flight, and answered:

     “Fly the ocean? Well, why shouldn’t a girl do the trick?” she said. “There is no reason why one shouldn’t be able. The main requirement is a good ship, I think. If I get one, I may do it. This plane is the same one in which I set a record of 30 hours, 12 minutes for a flight from Los Angeles to New York and return, It has flown many thousands of miles in addition, and was used in the altitude flight. You saw what it did today.”

      When Miss Nichols’ plane reached its top speed of 226.88 miles an hour she was but 51.60 miles behind the world’s record for land planes, held by Adjutant Bonnett, of France, who went 278.48.

     Inside the mammoth aviation show hangar today air enthusiasts discovered they were walking about the aisles with Henry Ford.

     The motor car magnate visited the show with W. B. Mayo, Ford engineer, and his two grandsons, Henri II and Benson Ford. Ford viewed the exhibit of his own giant liners and then inspected other exhibits.

     He took particular interest in new inventions displayed. He was in the hangar an hour and a half before his presence became known generally.

     Yesterday 18,000 went through the gates, while thousands more stood about City Airp0ort to watch the planes. They say among other things the unofficial setting of a new altitude mark by light planes.

     Kenneth Scholter, 19-year-old pilot from Hudson, Ohio, attained 19,500 feet ina tiny Aeronca monoplane, powered by a 30 horsepower motor yesterday.

—The Brooklyn Daily Times, Monday, 13 April 1931, Page 1, Columns 2–3

Built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, Burbank, California, the Vega was a single-engine high-wing monoplane with fixed landing gear. It was flown by a single pilot in an open cockpit and could be configured to carry four to six passengers.

The Lockheed Vega was a very state-of-the-art aircraft for its time. The prototype flew for the first time 4 July 1927 at Mines Field, Los Angeles, California. It used a streamlined monocoque fuselage made of molded plywood. The wing and tail surfaces were fully cantilevered, requiring no bracing wires or struts to support them. The fuselage was molded laminated plywood monocoque construction and the wing was cantilevered wood.

The Model 5 Vega is 27 feet, 6 inches (8.382 meters) long with a wingspan of 41 feet (12.497 meters) and overall height of 8 feet, 2 inches (2.489 meters). Its empty weight is 2,595 pounds (1,177 kilograms) and gross weight is 4,500 pounds (2,041 kilograms).

Nichols’ airplane was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C nine-cylinder radial engine with a compression ratio of 5.25:1. It was rated at 420 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level, burning 58-octane gasoline. The engine drove a two-bladed controllable-pitch Hamilton Standard propeller through direct drive. The Wasp C was 3 feet, 6.63 inches (1.083 meters) long, 4 feet, 3.44 inches (1.3-7 meters) in diameter and weighed 745 pounds (338 kilograms).

“Ruth Nichols was the only woman to hold simultaneously the women’s world speed, altitude, and distance records for heavy landplanes. She soloed in a flying boat and received her pilot’s license after graduating from Wellesley College in 1924, becoming the first woman in New York to do so. Defying her parents wishes to follow the proper life of a young woman, in January 1928 she flew nonstop from New York City to Miami with Harry Rogers in a Fairchild FC-2. The publicity stunt brought Nichols fame as “The Flying Debutante” and provided headlines for Rogers’ airline too. Sherman Fairchild took note and hired Nichols as a northeast sales manager for Fairchild Aircraft and Engine Corporation. She helped to found the Long Island Aviation Country Club, an exclusive flying club and participated in the 19,312-meter (12,000-mile) Sportsman Air Tour to promote the establishment of clubs around the country. She was also a founder of Sportsman Pilot magazine. Nichols set several women’s records in 1931, among them a speed record of 339.0952 kph (210.704 mph), an altitude record of 8,760 meters (28,743 feet), and a nonstop distance record of 3182.638 kilometers (1,977.6 miles). Her hopes to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean were dashed by two crashes of a Lockheed Vega in 1931, in which she was severely injured, and again in 1932. In 1940, Nichols founded Relief Wings, a humanitarian air service for disaster relief that quickly became an adjunct relief service of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) during World War II. Nichols became a lieutenant colonel in the CAP. After the war she organized a mission in support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and became an advisor to the CAP on air ambulance missions. In 1958, she flew a Delta Dagger at 1,609 kph (1,000 mph) at an altitude of 15,544 meters (51,000 feet). A Hamilton variable pitch propeller (which allowed a pilot to select a climb or cruise position for the blades), from her Lockheed Vega is displayed in the Golden Age of Flight gallery. Nichols’ autobiography is titled Wings for Life.”

— Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Women In Aviation and Space History, The Golden Age of Flight.

¹ FAI Record File Number 12282

² FAI Record File Number 12326: 291.55 kilometers per hour (181.16 miles per hour), Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., 5 July 1930

³ FAI Record File Number 12228: 8,761 meters (27,743.44 feet), Jersey City Airport, New Jersey, U.S.A., 6 March 1931

Ruth Nichols with Walter D. Wood, National Aeronautic Association, who is holding the sealed barograph after setting FAI World Altitude Record. (FAI)

© 2024, Bryan R. Swopes

12 April 1918

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Malcolm and Allan Loughead in cockpit of their F-1 flying boat, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

12 April  1918: Allan and Malcolm Loughead, owners of the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Santa Barbara, California, set speed and distance records as they flew their twin-engine, ten-place F-1 flying boat from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The F-1 traveled 211 miles (340 kilometers) in 3 hours, 1 minute.¹

The F-1 took off from the waters off West Beach at Santa Barbara at 9:21 a.m., passed Point Fermin at 10:40 a.m., Oceanside at 11:55 a.m., and arrived at North Island at 12:23 p.m.² The airplane was flown by the two Loughead Brothers and carried two passengers.

The Southern California shorline from Santa Barbara, at the upper left, to San Diego, at the lower right. (Google Maps)

GREAT SEAPLANE MAKES RECORD ON FLIGHT

     SAN DIEGO, April 12.—The big seaplane F-1, piloted by Malcolm Loughead and carrying three passengers, arrived here at 12:23 this afternoon.

     The F-1 left Santa Barbara at 9:21 this morning and the estimated distance of 190 miles between that city and San Diego was therefore covered in exactly three hours and two minutes, a speed of approximately 63 1-3 miles an hour. The big seaplane was first sighted over Point Loma and within a few minutes alighted on the surface of San Diego Bay a short distance from the United States army aviation station at North Island. At 12:23 the seaplane reached the North Island landing and was hauled ashore by army men in waiting. According to Pilot Loughead, the trip was made without incident, although during the latter part of the trip headwinds were met with which retarded the speed of the aircraft.

————

     Three hours and two minutes by air flight to San Diego from Santa Barbara—that’s the record established today by Allan and Malcolm Loughead, in their big hydroplane, F-1, carrying as passengers Alfred Holt and Carl Christopherson, employees of the Loughead Aeroplane Manufacturing Company.

     The distance of 190 miles, by airplane, was made without mishap. The start from Santa Barbara gathered quite a group of citizens, among them being a number of stockholders in the Loughead company, and thousands would have been there to witness the notable start had it been known at what hour the flight would start.

     During the morning the Lougheads received a dispatch from government officials at the aviation headquarters on North Island, San Diego, informing them that air and ocean conditions were perfect all the way south, and asking that the flight be made today.

     The Lougheads were even at that moment getting ready for the departure, and arrangements were hastened. The bay was ruffled by a breeze, and the combers sparkled in the warm sunlight, as the hydroplane motors were started, and the big fans began to whirr. There were hasty farewells, and every man waved his hat and every woman present shook a kerchief, while the cheers broke forth from all as the big plane sped down the ways, and went skidding into the sea.

     At the wheels were Allan and Malcolm Loughead, while Christopherson and Holt occupied places in the passengers’ quarters at the head of the big plane. The machine was guided in a half circle, taking a southwesterly course at first, until beyond the pleasure pier, where it rose from the bosom of the sea, and rapidly ascended to an altitude of about 500 feet, when it took a southeasterly course, and heading down the channel toward Oxnard.

     It was a perfect get-away, and no bird ever took to the air more gracefully than the big plane rose above the sea and soared away, easily, the very hypothesis of graceful motion, and the speed at which it was travelling soon took it out of sight to the south.

     From Ventura and Hueneme the flight was witnessed by a large number of citizens, and at Point Fermin, near San Pedro, the passing of the plane attracted great interest. In fact, all the way south, great crowds watched eagerly and it was a continuous ovation that greeted the airmen from the land.

     At San Diego the fliers were met by a big crowd, and their stay in the southern city is being made one prolonged reception. From many points along the coast today telephone and telegraph messages have flashed, reporting the passing of the machine, whose eventful trip is the biggest sensation of the day in aviation circles.

     It is stated that the flight establishes a long distance record for a passenger-carrying hydroplane. The plane will be tested out by the government aviation officials, and it is expected that within a very few days the announcement will be made of a contract awarded the Loughead Brothers by the government for other machines.

     Experts who have examined the F-1 state that it is perfectly built, and the finest machine of its class afloat.     

—The Santa Barbara Daily News and the Independent, Friday, 12 April 1918, Page 1, Column 6

Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company F-1. (Lockheed Martin).

Designed by friend and employee John Knudson (“Jack”) Northrop, and built in a garage on State Street, the F-1 was launched on a wooden ramp at West Beach.

The airplane was intended for the U.S. Navy, but the end of World War I ended the requirement for new airplanes.

The Loughead F-1 was a twin-engine, three-bay biplane flying boat operated by a crew of 2. It could carry 8–10 passengers. The airplane was 35 feet (10.668 meters) long. The span of the upper wing was 74 feet (22.555 meters) and the lower wing was 47 feet (14.326 meters). The height was 12 feet (3.658 meters). The F-1 had an empty weight of 4,200 pounds (1,905 kilograms) and gross weight of 7,300 pounds (3,311 kilograms).

Loughead F-1 at Santa Barbara, 1918. (San Diego Air and Space Museum)
Loughead F-1 at Santa Barbara, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

The F-1 was powered by two right-hand tractor, water-cooled, normally-aspirated 909.22-cubic-inch-displacement (14.899 liters) Hall-Scott A-5-engines. These were inline six-cylinder single-overhead-camshaft (SOHC) engines with a compression ratio of 4.6:1. It was rated at 150 horsepower and produced 165 horsepower at 1,475 r.p.m. The engines were mounted on steel struts between the upper and lower wings. The engines were direct-drive and turned two-bladed, fixed pitch propellers with a diameter of 8 feet, 8 inches (2.642 meters). The Hall-Scott A-5-a was 5 feet, 2.5 inches (1.588 meters) long, 2 feet, 0 inches (0.610 meters) wide and 3 feet, 7.875 inches (1.114 meters) high. It weighed 595 pounds (270 kilograms).

The F-1 had a cruise speed of 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 84 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour).

The F-1 was converted to a land plane with tricycle undercarriage and redesignated F-1A. During an attempted transcontinental flight, it twice suffered engine failure and was damaged. Reconfigured as a flying boat, the airplane was used for sight-seeing before being sold. It was abandoned on a beach at Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, and was eventually destroyed.

Loughead F-1, 1918. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

The Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company would go on to become one of the world’s leading aerospace corporations.

¹ The certifying source for this “record” is not known. The distance flown and elapsed time for the flight cited here are from Wikipedia. The Great Circle distance from today’s Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) to NAS North Island (NZY) is 193 statute miles (311 kilometers). However, contemporary news reports suggest that the Loughead brothers flew the F-1 along California’s southern coastline, rather than making a direct flight across the Santa Barbara Channel, Santa Monica Bay, the Catalina Channel, and on to San Diego Bay. At the time of this flight, the governing body for aviation in the United States was the Aero Club of America, while official flight records were certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, which was based in France. The ACA ceased to exist in 1923, replaced by today’s National Aeronautic Association. The FAI online records database list only two world records set in 1918, both altitude records set by Major Rudolph Schroeder, 18 September 1918, at Dayton, Ohio.

² The Los Angeles Times, the Oakland Tribune and the San Bernardino Daily Sun state that the time of the takeoff was 9:23 a.m. The Tribune cites the arrival time as 12:24 p.m., while the Daily Sun reported the time as both 12:32 and 12:24. Various newspapers reported the distance flown by the F-1 as 190 miles (306 kilometers), while The Salt Lake Herald-Republican-Telegram printed that it was 200 miles (322 kilometers).

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes

6 March 1931

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Ruth Nichols (1901–1960)
Ruth Rowland Nichols (1901–1960)

6 March 1931: Ruth Rowland Nichols set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Altitude Record of 8,761 meters (28,743 feet) at Jersey City Airport, New Jersey.¹

Nichols’ airplane was a 1928 Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special, serial number 619, registered NR496M, and owned by Powell Crosley, Jr. He had named the airplane The New Cincinnati.

Built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, Burbank, California, the Vega was a single-engine high-wing monoplane with fixed landing gear. It was flown by a single pilot and could be configured to carry four to six passengers.

The Lockheed Vega was a very state-of-the-art aircraft for its time. The prototype flew for the first time 4 July 1927 at Mines Field, Los Angeles, California. It used a streamlined monocoque fuselage made of molded plywood. The wing and tail surfaces were fully cantilevered, requiring no bracing wires or struts to support them. The fuselage was molded laminated plywood monocoque construction and the wing was cantilevered wood.

The Model 5 Vega is 27 feet, 6 inches (8.382 meters) long with a wingspan of 41 feet (12.497 meters) and overall height of 8 feet, 2 inches (2.489 meters). Its empty weight is 2,595 pounds (1,177 kilograms) and gross weight is 4,500 pounds (2,041 kilograms).

Nichols’ airplane was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C, a nine-cylinder radial engine with a compression ratio of 5.25:1. It was rated at 420 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level. The engine drove a two-bladed controllable-pitch Hamilton Standard propeller through direct drive. The Wasp C was 3 feet, 6.63 inches (1.083 meters) long, 4 feet, 3.44 inches (1.307 meters) in diameter and weighed 745 pounds (338 kilograms).

Ruth Nichols with man holding barograph after setting FAI World Altitude Record. (FAI)
Ruth Nichols with Walter D. Wood, National Aeronautic Association, who is holding the sealed barograph after setting FAI World Altitude Record. (FAI)

Flying the Vega, Ruth Nichols also set records for speed between New York and Los Angeles. NR496M was damaged beyond repair at Floyd Bennett Field, 11 April 1931.

“Ruth Nichols was the only woman to hold simultaneously the women’s world speed, altitude, and distance records for heavy landplanes. She soloed in a flying boat and received her pilot’s license after graduating from Wellesley College in 1924, becoming the first woman in New York to do so. Defying her parents wishes to follow the proper life of a young woman, in January 1928 she flew nonstop from New York City to Miami with Harry Rogers in a Fairchild FC-2. The publicity stunt brought Nichols fame as “The Flying Debutante” and provided headlines for Rogers’ airline too. Sherman Fairchild took note and hired Nichols as a northeast sales manager for Fairchild Aircraft and Engine Corporation. She helped to found the Long Island Aviation Country Club, an exclusive flying club and participated in the 19,312-kilometer (12,000-mile) Sportsman Air Tour to promote the establishment of clubs around the country. She was also a founder of Sportsman Pilot magazine. Nichols set several women’s records in 1931, among them a speed record of 339.0952 kph (210.704 mph), an altitude record of 8,760 meters (28,743 feet), and a nonstop distance record of 3182.638 kilometers (1,977.6 miles). Her hopes to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean were dashed by two crashes of a Lockheed Vega in 1931, in which she was severely injured, and again in 1932. In 1940, Nichols founded Relief Wings, a humanitarian air service for disaster relief that quickly became an adjunct relief service of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) during World War II. Nichols became a lieutenant colonel in the CAP. After the war she organized a mission in support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and became an advisor to the CAP on air ambulance missions. In 1958, she flew a Delta Dagger at 1,609 kph (1,000 mph) at an altitude of 15,544 meters (51,000 feet). A Hamilton variable pitch propeller (which allowed a pilot to select a climb or cruise position for the blades), from her Lockheed Vega is displayed in the Golden Age of Flight gallery. Nichols’ autobiography is titled Wings for Life.”

— Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Women In Aviation and Space History, The Golden Age of Flight.

Ruth Nichols with her Lockheed Model 5a Vega.
Ruth Nichols with the Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special. (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)

¹ FAI Record File Number 12228

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes

24 February 1934

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The prototype Lockheed Model 10 Electra X233Y in flight over Southern California, 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)

24 February 1934:¹ Edmund Turney Allen,² a consulting engineer and test pilot, took the prototype Lockheed Model 10 Electra, serial number 1001, registered X233Y, for its first flight from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation plant in Burbank, California, to the adjacent United Airport (which soon became United Air Terminal, then Lockheed Air Terminal and is now the Hollywood-Burbank Airport, BUR).

Aerial photograph of United Airport, looking west northwest, early 1930s. The Lockheed factory is just out of frame at the lower left, bordering the railroad tracks. (Burbank Public Library)

The Los Angeles Times reported:

NEW-TYPE PLANE PERFECTED

Lockheed Factory Turns Out First of “Electras,” Latest Word in Swift Transport

     The latest forward step by Los Angeles in the field of swift-aircraft manufacture, a 215-mile-an-hour, ten-passenger, low-wing monoplane built by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, made its first appearance and took to the air in its initial test flight yesterday.

     The all-metal airliner, one of the fastest multimotored transport planes in the world and designed for economical performance by airlines enjoying little or no air-mail subsidy, was flown by Edmund T. Allen on its maiden flight from the Lockheed plant to United Airport, Burbank.

     The ship, named the Electra, is the first of nine such planes ordered by two airlines, Northwest Airways having placed an order for three and Pan-American Airways awaiting delivery on six Electras. The model follows the single-engine Lockheed Vega, Orion and Sirius models flown by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, Wiley Post, Col. Roscoe Turner, Amelia Earhart and other noted flyers on record flights.

     The Electra’s cruising speed is in excess of 190 miles per hour. It is equipped with controllable-pitch propellers to gain maximum efficiency from its two Wasp Junior engines supercharged to develop 420 horsepower each at 5000 feet.

     The craft is equipped with advanced improvements, including new retractable landing gear, wing flaps to insure low, safe landing speed, and a radical new-type tail assembly having two small vertical fins, or rudders,instead of one large one, making for greater maneuverability.

     The Electra will be on display at United Airport, and the public, according to United Airlines officials, is invited to inspect it.

—Los Angeles Times, Vol. LIII, 25 February 1934, Page 17, Columns 1 and 2

The prototype Lockheed Electra Model 10 prototype, X233Y, at Union Airport, Burbank, California, before its first flight, 24 February 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)

The Lockheed Model 10 Electra was designed as a 10-passenger commercial transport and was a contemporary of the Boeing Model 247. This was Lockheed’s first all-metal airplane. The Electra had two engines, a low wing and retractable landing gear. The airplane was designed by Lloyd Stearman and Hall L. Hibbard.

Lockheed Model 10 Electra X233Y. (aviadejavu)

A young engineer, Clarence L. (“Kelly”) Johnson, an assistant aerodynamicist at the University of Michigan, performed the wind tunnel tests on scale models of the proposed design and recommended changes to the configuration, such as the use of two vertical fins mounted at the outboard ends of the horizontal stabilizer. This became a design feature of Lockheed airplanes into the 1950s and included the Model 14 Super Electra/Hudson, Model 18 Lodestar/PV-1 Ventura, the P-38 Lightning fighter and the L-1649 Starliner, which was produced until 1958. Johnson would become the leader of Lockheed’s legendary  “Skunk Works.”

Clarence L. "KellY" Johnson conducted wind tunnel testing of the Model 10 at the University of Michigan.
Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson conducted wind tunnel testing of the Model 10 at the University of Michigan. Note the single vertical fin on this wind tunnel model. (Lockheed)

The prototype Electra was was used for certification testing. During a full-load test at Mines Field (now, LAX, Los Angeles International Airport) the Electra’s landing gear malfunctioned. Marshall (“Babe”) Headle, Lockheed’s chief pilot, flew the airplane back to Burbank and made a one-wheel landing. The prototype was slightly damaged but quickly repaired.

Lockheed Model 10 Electra X233Y at Union Airport, Burbank, California, before its first flight, 24 February 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)
Lockheed Model 10 Electra X233Y at Union Airport, Burbank, California, before its first flight, 24 February 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)
Lockheed Model 10 Electra X233Y at Union Airport, Burbank, California, before its first flight, 24 February 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)
Passenger cabin of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, looking forward. (James Borden Photography Collection)
Lockheed Model 10 Electra NC233Y at Northwest Airways, St. Paul, Minnesota, May 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)
Lockheed Model 10 Electra NC233Y, Northwest Airways, St. Paul, Minnesota, 24 May 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)
Lockheed Model 10 Electra NC233Y, St. Paul Minnesota, 24 May 1934. (James Borden Photography Collection)

After testing was competed the prototype Electra was delivered to Northwest Airways, Inc., at St. Paul, Minnesota, in May 1934. The experimental registration was changed to a standard registration, NC233Y, and it was assigned the Northwest fleet number 60.

Like the Boeing 247, the Electra was originally produced with a forward-slanting windshield to prevent instrument light reflection during night flights. This resulted in ground lighting reflections, though, and was changed to a standard, rearward slant with the fifth production airplane. NC233Y was modified by Northwestern’s maintenance staff.

Lockheed built 147 Model 10s in various configurations. The first production variant was the Model 10A. It was 38 feet, 7 inches (11.760 meters) long with a wingspan of 55 feet (16.764 meters), and height of 10 feet, 1 inch (3.073 meters). The wings had a total area of 458.3 square feet (42.6square meters). Their angle of incidence was 0°, and there were 5° 34′ dihedral.

The airplane had an empty weight of 5,455 pounds (2,474 kilograms) and a gross weight of 9,000 pounds (4,082 kilograms).

Three-view illustration of initial configuration of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra.

The Model 10A was powered by two air-cooled, supercharged, 986.749-cubic-inch-displacement (16.170 liters) Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. SB  9-cylinder radial engines with a compression ratio of 6:1. They were rated at 400 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m at 5,000 feet (1,524 meters), and 450 horsepower at 2,300 r.p.m. for takeoff, using 87-octane gasoline. The SB engines were direct-drive and turned two-bladed Smith variable-pitch propellers. The Wasp Jr. SB was 3 feet, 6.59 inches (1.056 meters) long, 3 feet, 11.75 inches (1.162 meters) in diameter, and weighed 645 pounds (293 kilograms). The engines were covered by NACA cowlings.

The airplane had a cruise speed of 190 miles per hour (306 kilometers per hour) at 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) and maximum speed of 215 miles per hour (346 kilometers per hour) at 8,000 feet (2,438 meters). The service ceiling was 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) and the range at cruise speed was 750 miles (1,207 kilometers).

The prototype Lockheed Model 10 Electra, NC233Y, after cockpit windshield modifications by Northwestern Airways, Inc. (San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives)
The prototype Lockheed Model 10 Electra, NC233Y, after cockpit windshield modifications by Northwest Airways, Inc. (San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive, Catalog #: 01_00091576)

Newsreel footage of the Lockheed Model 10 prototype’s first flight, by cinematographer Alfred Dillimtash Black for Fox Movietone News, is in the collection of the Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina, University Libraries, and can be viewed at: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/7073

The Electra was “the Lisbon plane” in the  classic 1942 motion picture, “Casablanca,” which starred Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains.

Probably the best-known Lockheed Electra is the Model 10E Special, NR16020, which was built for Amelia Earhart for her around-the-world flight attempt in 1937. She took delivery of the airplane on her 39th birthday, 24 July 1936.

Amelia Earhart with her Lockheed Electra 10E, NR16020, at Burbank, 1937.
Amelia Earhart with her Lockheed Electra 10E, NR16020, at Burbank, 1937.

The prototype Lockheed Model 10 later carried U.S. registrations NC2332, NC17380, and Canadian registration CF-BRG. It was placed in service with the Royal Canadian Air Force 2 August 1940 with the serial number 7652. One of 15 Lockheed Electras in RCAF service during World War II, it was destroyed by fire at RCAF Station Mountain View, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada, 14 October 1941.

Statement of Accident (Royal Canadian Air Force/Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum)

¹ Most sources cite 23 February as the date of the first flight.

² Many sources (e.g., Wikipedia) state that Lockheed’s Chief Pilot, Marshall Headle, made the Electra’s first flight.

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes

14 February 1932

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Ruth Rowland Nichols (FAI)

14 February 1932: Taking off from Floyd Bennett Field, Ruth Rowland Nichols flew Miss Teaneck, a Lockheed Vega 1 owned by Clarence Duncan Chamberlin, to an altitude of 19,928 feet (6,074 meters). This set a National Aeronautic Association record.

The airplane’s owner had flown it to 19,393 feet (5,911 meters) on 24 January 1932.

A contemporary newspaper reported:

RUTH NICHOLS SETS NEW ALTITUDE RECORD

     Ruth Nichols’ flight in a Lockheed monoplane powered with a 225 horsepower Packard Diesel motor to an altitude of 21,350 feet Friday had been credited to the Rye girl unofficially as a new altitude record for Diesel engines. A sealed barograph, removed from the plane, has been sent to Washington to the Bureau of Standards to determine the exact altitude figure.

—The Bronxville Press, Vol. VIII, No. 14, Tuesday, February 15, 1932, Columns 1 and 2

Ruth Nichols withwith Walter D. Wood, National Aeronautic Association, who is holding the sealed barograph, after setting FAI World Altitude Record. (FAI)

RUTH NICHOLS SETS AIR MARK

Aviatrix Beats Chamberlain [sic] Altitude Record

Sails 21,300 Feet High in Flying Furnace

Temperature Found to Be 15 Deg. Below Zero

     NEW YORK, Feb. 14.  (AP)—Ruth Nichols, society aviatrix, flew Clarence Chamberlin’s “Flying Furnace” to a new altitude record, on the basis of an unofficial reading of her altimeter.

     When she landed it registered 21,300 feet, while Chamberlin’s official record for the Diesel-motored craft was 19,363 feet.

     Miss Nichols took off at 4:15 p.m. from Floyd Bennett airport and landed an hour and one minute later after an exciting flight.

     She encountered temperatures of 15 degrees below zero, she said, and at 20,000 feet two of her cylinders blew out. At that height, too, she was forced to the use of her oxygen tank.

ENJOYED HER FLIGHT

     In addition to the sealed barograph, which was taken from the plane at once to be sent to Washington for official calibration, Miss Nichols had three altimeters, two of which went out of commission in the upper atmosphere. The unofficial reading was taken from the third altimeter.

     Despite her crippled engine and the fact that she had no brakes, she made a perfect landing and announced she had enjoyed the flight.

     He unofficial altimeter reading was greater than that of Chamberlin after his flight and it is believed the official calibration would establish the new record for planes of this type.

ADVISED BY CHAMBERLIN

     Chamberlin was present as her technical advisor, and he gave last-minute instructions as she stepped into the cockpit, wearing a heavy flying suit, lined boots, and a purple scarf wound about her head instead of a helmet.

     The plane carried 13 gallons of furnace oil, and one tank of oxygen. The regular wheels were changed smaller, lighter ones before the flight.

     Miss Nichols hold several records and has reached an altitude of 28,743 feet in a gasoline plane.

—Los Angeles Times, Volume LI. Monday, 15 February 1932, Page 3 at Column 3

Ruth Nichols’ Flight Record Confirmed

     Rye, N. Y., March 2—Miss Ruth Nichols, aviatrix, received notice from Washington today that her altitude flight from Floyd Bennett Airport, Barren Island, on Feb. 14 last in a Diesel-powered airplane to a height of 19,928 feet has set a new American Altitude record for that type of plane.

—Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Vol. XCI, No, 61, Page 2, Column 2

Miss Teaneck had been modified. The original Wright Whirlwind engine had been replaced by an air-cooled, 982.26-cubic-inch-displacement (16.096 liter) Packard DR-980 nine-cylinder radial diesel-cycle (or “compression-ignition”) engine. The DR-980 had one valve per cylinder and a compression ratio of 16:1. It had a continuous power rating of 225 horsepower at 1,950 r.p.m., and 240 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. for takeoff. The DR-980 was 3 feet, ¾-inch (0.933 meters) long, 3 feet, 9-11/16 inches (1.160 meters) in diameter, and weighed 510 pounds (231 kilograms). The Packard Motor Car Company built approximately 100 DR-980s, and a single DR-980B which used two valves per cylinder and was rated at 280 horsepower at 2,100 r.p.m. The Collier Trophy was awarded to Packard for its work on this engine.

Three-view drawing of the Lockheed Vega from a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics publication. (NASA)

The Lockheed Vega was a very state-of-the-art aircraft for its time. The prototype flew for the first time 4 July 1927 at Mines Field, Los Angeles, California.

The Vega used a streamlined monocoque fuselage made of strips of vertical-grain spruce pressed into concrete molds and bonded together with cassein glue. These were then attached to former rings. The wing and tail surfaces were fully cantilevered, requiring no bracing wires or struts to support them. They were built of spruce spars and ribs, covered with 3/32-inch (2.4 millimeters) spruce plywood.

The Lockheed Vega 1 was flown by a single pilot in an open cockpit and could carry up to four passengers in the enclosed cabin. It was 27.5 feet (8.38 meters) long with a wingspan of 41.0 feet (12.50 meters) and height of 8 feet, 6 inches (2.59 meters). The total wing area (including ailerons) was 275 square feet (25.55 square meters). The wing had no dihedral. The leading edges were swept slightly aft, and the trailing edges swept forward. The Vega 1 had an empty weight of 1,650.0 pounds (748.4 kilograms) and a gross weight of 3,200 pounds (1,452 kilograms).

The early Vegas were powered by an air-cooled, normally-aspirated 787.26-cubic-inch-displacement (12.901 liter) Wright Whirlwind Five (J-5C) nine-cylinder radial engine. This was a direct-drive engine with a compression ratio of 5.1:1. The J-5C was rated at 200 horsepower at 1,800 r.p.m., and 220 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. It was 2 feet, 10 inches (0.864 meters) long, 3 feet, 9 inches (1.143 meters) in diameter, and weighed 508 pounds (230.4 kilograms).

The Vega had a cruising speed of 110 miles per hour (177 kilometers per hour) with the engine turning 1,500 r.p.m., and a top speed of 135 miles per hour (217 kilometers per hour)—very fast for its time. The airplane had a rate of climb of 925 feet per minute (4.7 meters per second) at Sea Level, decreasing to 405 feet per minute (2.1 meters per second) at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters). Its service ceiling was 15,900 feet (4,846 meters), and the absolute ceiling was 17,800 feet (5,425 meters). The airplane had a fuel capacity of 100 gallons (379 liters), giving it a range of 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) at cruise speed.

Twenty-eight Vega 1 airplanes were built by Lockheed Aircraft Company at the factory on Sycamore Street, Hollywood, California, before production of the improved Lockheed Vega 5 began in 1928 and the company moved to its new location at Burbank, California.

The techniques used to build the Vega were very influential in aircraft design. It also began Lockheed’s tradition of naming its airplanes after stars and other astronomical objects.

The first Lockheed Vega 1, NX913, Golden Eagle. (San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives)

© 2021 Bryan R. Swopes