Lockheed Aircraft Company
2 types ยท 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Narrative coming soon.
Aircraft Types
Lockheed Air Express
The Lockheed Air Express was a parasol-wing mail and passenger monoplane built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company in 1928, adapting the Vega's fuselage to a Western Air Express requirement for work over the Sierra Nevada. Its pilot sat in an open cockpit behind the wing while passengers and mail rode in an enclosed cabin. Production was tiny: Wikipedia counts eight in all, seven standard aircraft plus a one-off special, while Don Berliner's account numbers seven completed aircraft. Record flights by Frank Hawks, Roscoe Turner and Laura Ingalls made the type famous, and none is known to survive.
Lockheed Vega
The Lockheed Vega was a wooden high-wing monoplane introduced in 1927 as the first product of the Lockheed Aircraft Company. Designed by Jack Northrop, its molded plywood monocoque fuselage and internally braced cantilever wing made it fast for its day, and it served as a small airliner and private transport. The type is remembered for its record flights: Amelia Earhart's solo crossings of the Atlantic and the United States in 1932, and Wiley Post's two flights around the world, the second of them solo, in 1931 and 1933. Lockheed built 131 Vegas, and the two most famous survivors are held by the National Air and Space Museum.