Lockheed’s Early Years, 1912-1940

The Model G on its launch ramp, 1912. Pontoons advertise the Alco
Hydro-Aeroplane Company, the predecessor to the Lockheed Company.

Even though it was inexpensive to operate and easy to fly, the S-1 Sports Biplane did not go into production.

Top people of Loughead Aircraft pose in front of a Lockheed-built Curtiss HS-2L flying boat for the U.S. Navy.

The Lockheed Vega Air Express. Frank M. Hawks broke the
transcontinental speed record in this plane. It was the first
production aircraft with the NACA cowling, 1929.

Charles Lindbergh sitting in the cockpit of his Lockheed Sirius Model 8 aircraft, 1930.

Charles and Anne Lindbergh in front of their Sirius. They set a transcontinental speed record in April 1930.

The Lockheed Orion reverted to the fuselage configuration of the Vega
with its enclosed cockpit just behind the engine and an enclosed
passenger cabin behind it.

The
Lockheed Company, one of the giants in the modern aerospace industry,
began in 1912 when the Loughead brothers, Allan and Malcolm, formed the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company in San Francisco. Their first aircraft, the Model G seaplane, debuted
on June 15, 1913. It was the largest seaplane yet built in the United
States. Though the brothers couldn’t find a customer for their plane,
they earned some income for the startup company by flying passengers in
their plane.

In the
summer of 1916, the brothers moved to Santa Barbara, California, and,
backed by Burton Rodman and other investors, formed the Loughead
Aircraft Manufacturing Company. Their first plane with the new company
was the 10-passenger F-1 seaplane. John K. “Jack” Northrop, who would
later form his own company, designed and helped build the hull and
wings. The twin-engine biplane had a 74-foot (22.5-meter) upper
wingspan, a 47-foot (14-meter) lower wingspan, twin booms, and a triple
tail. It debuted on March 29, 1918. The Navy took delivery of it after
a record-setting flight from Santa Barbara to San Diego on April 12,
1918, flying the 211 miles (340 kilometers) in only 181 minutes.

When World
War I ended, Navy aircraft orders dried up. The brothers tried to sell
a small sport plane, the S-1, but the market was saturated by surplus
warplanes. The business barely survived by building two Curtiss HS-2L
flying boats and by working as a subcontractor. But it wasn’t enough,
and the business went into liquidation in 1921. Northrop went to work
for Donald Douglas.

On December
13, 1926, the Lockheed brothers (they changed their last name to avoid
mispronunciation)) and a group of investors formed the Lockheed
Aircraft Company. This company lasted for less than three years, but in
that time, it developed and built the first Vega, designed by Northrop,
who had returned to Lockheed. It was a cantilever high-wing wooden
monoplane with a streamlined monocoque fuselage built from two half-shells of plywood that had been shaped
under pressure in a concrete mold. It could hold four passengers and a
pilot.

The Vega 1 first flew on July 4, 1927. Newspaper owner George Hearst bought
it to compete in the Oakland to Hawaii Dole Race. Jack Forst and
Gordon Scott piloted the aircraft, named the Golden Eagle,
on the trip, but the two disappeared without a trace. This did not,
however, deter future sales of the aircraft. The plane was used
for several record-setting flights, including the first trans-arctic
flight in April 1928 and the first flight over Antarctica in November
1928, both made by George Hubert Wilkins and Carl Ben Eielson, It
also made the first solo transatlantic flight by a woman, Amelia
Earhart; and the first solo round-the-world flight, made by Wiley
Post. A total of 128 Vegas were built, 115 by Lockheed and nine
by Detroit Aircraft Corporation after it acquired Lockheed in 1929.

The
Lockheed Company also built seven Lockheed Air Express airplanes, which
resembled the Vega except for the open cockpit and higher wings than
the Vega. Designed by Northrop specifically for Western Air Express‘s
airmail route between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, its
development began late in 1927. One of the Air Express planes used the
NACA cowling. A variant of the Air Express, the Explorer, was designed
for a non-stop transpacific flight to Japan. The two Explorers built,
though, both crashed. In the meantime, Northrop in 1928 had again left
to begin his own company, and Gerard “Jerry” F. Vultee replaced
Northrop as chief engineer.

In July
1929, Fred E. Keeler, an investor who owned 51 percent of Lockheed,
decided to sell 87 percent of the company assets to Detroit Aircraft
Company, a holding company. As part of Detroit Aircraft, the company
continued building Vegas and also built the Lockheed 8 Sirius, which
Charles Lindbergh used as a floatplane on several round-the-world
survey flights for Pan American Airways in the early 1930s. The Sirius
had fixed tail landing gear and two open cockpits. Retractable landing gear was added onto a successor aircraft called the Altair, which made the
first crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Australia to the United States
between October 20 and November 4, 1934.

The Lockheed 9 Orion was another successful plane built during this period. The Orion, which featured the NACA cowling and retractable landing gear, was a wooden monoplane that could carry a
pilot and six passengers. The first Orion flew in early 1931. A number
of U.S. airlines used it and it also flew in the Spanish Civil War on
the Republican side. An Orion-Explorer, constructed from Orion and
Explorer parts, crashed in Alaska on August 15, 1935, killing Wiley
Post and Will Rogers.

Lockheed
remained with Detroit Aircraft until 1931, when Detroit Aircraft went
into receivership. A group of investors led by Robert Gross bailed the
company out and purchased Lockheed’s assets in 1932 for $40,000,
forming the new Lockheed Aircraft Corporation with Lloyd C. Stearman as
president. Allan Lockheed, who had left the company in 1929, returned
as a consultant. Gross also attracted Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, a young
engineer who would soon help make Lockheed’s reputation.

Gross
realized that the company needed to move past the Vega and similar
planes if it was to compete with the other major aircraft companies,
Boeing and Douglas. He also saw that the future lay with multi-engine
planes and pushed for construction of a new plane that would be
smaller, faster, and cheaper to operate than the larger Boeing and
Douglas planes. His initiative paid off. Lockheed’s innovative
twin-engine Model 10 Electra, with retractable landing gear and twin
fins and rudders, helped establish the company’s line of commercial
passenger aircraft. The 10-passenger all-metal plane flew for the first
time on February 23, 1934. Northwest Airlines was the first airline to
use the plane. In the late 1930s, eight U.S. airlines flew the plane as
did European, Australian, Canadian, and South American customers. Model
10 Electras were used for long-distance flights, and Major James
“Jimmy” Doolittle flew an Electra from Chicago to New Orleans in five
hours 55 minutes in 1936—two hours quicker than the previous fastest
time. Amelia Earhart disappeared in an Electra on her round-the-world
attempt.

The Model
10 Electra was followed by the Model 12 Electra Junior executive
transport in 1936 that seated six passengers with a two-person crew.
Many Model 12s were used by the military, and the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) used a Model 12 to evaluate a wing deicing system that used hot air from the engine exhaust.

The 1937 Lockheed 14 Super Electra, designed to compete with the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3,
failed as a commercial aircraft in the United States because it had too
small a capacity. Most were sold abroad, and more than 100 were
license-built in Japan for use by the Imperial Japanese Army. But this
plane helped elevate Lockheed into the ranks of major aircraft
manufacturers. The 14 Super Electra formed the basis for the Lockheed
Hudson, which was used by Britain’s Royal Air Force in World War II.

The
Lockheed 18 Lodestar followed the Super Electra in 1939. This plane was
longer than the Super Electra and could hold 15 to 18 passengers. Some
were configured to seat up to 26 passengers. However, it still did not
sell well in the United States because, by this time, most airlines
were using the DC-3. It did well abroad though, and once World War II
began, the U.S. Army Air Force raised the total number produced to more
than 600.

In 1939,
Lockheed began work on a 40-pasenger airliner, the L-049 Constellation,
based on an order from TWA. The triple-tailed plane incorporated a
pressurized cabin, tricycle landing gear, and ultra-modern cabin
features. The first plane flew in January 1943, and when the United
States entered World War II, the Air Force took over the first batch
for service as C-69 transports. It was the largest and fastest cargo
transport to serve in the war. The plane would form the basis for
future civil transports.

—Judy Rumerman

From the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission

Clarence “Kelly” Johnson in the University of Michigan wind tunnel in
1933 with an early single-tail Model 10 Electra. Johnson’s aerodynamic
testing led to the twin tail design—later a Lockheed trademark.

Jimmy Doolittle stands before the Lockheed Orion Model 10.

This photo shows aviator Wiley Post standing on one of the floats
of the hybrid Orion-Explorer seaplane. The hybrid seaplane flew
Post and writer.

The 1937, the Air Corps bought three Lockheed Electra Model 10A
aircraft. They were designated Y1C-36 and were used as senior staff
transports during the mid and late 1930s.

The Lockheed XC-35 was specifically designed as a flight test aircraft
for high altitudes. Based on the Electra design, it was the world’s
first airplane specifically constructed with a pressure cabin.

The U.S. Army Air Forces was by far the main customer of the Lodestar.

Cockpit of the C-60 Lodestar.