Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra
The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra was a twin-engine airliner developed from the Model 10 Electra and first flown on July 29, 1937. It entered service with Northwest Airlines that October and was exported to airlines in Europe and beyond. Lockheed built 114; another 240 were built under license in Japan by Tachikawa and Kawasaki, whose Ki-56 freighter was redesigned from the type. Howard Hughes flew one around the world in 91 hours in July 1938, and Lockheed developed the airliner into the Hudson patrol bomber for wartime service.
Why It Mattered
The Model 14 Super Electra was Lockheed's bid for the market the Douglas DC-2 and Boeing 247 had opened: a faster, larger twin-engine airliner for the late 1930s. It was ready quickly, entering commercial service with Northwest Airlines in October 1937, three months after its first flight. In July 1938 Howard Hughes and four crewmates flew a Model 14 around the world in 91 hours, setting a world record and showing what a production airliner could do. The flight won Hughes both the Harmon Trophy and the Collier Trophy. Lockheed then developed the airliner into the Hudson patrol bomber, carrying the civil design into wartime service with the Royal Air Force, the USAAF and the United States Navy.
Design Notes
A team led by Don Palmer designed the Model 14 as a scaled-up Model 10 Electra, with passenger seating increased from 10 to 14. It kept its predecessor's sleek twin-engine monoplane layout, enlarged to fit the bigger cabin. Early aircraft used Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radials; the Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 was later offered as an option, and export versions flew with 900 hp Cyclones. In Cyclone form the type had a maximum speed of 250 mph and cruised at 215 mph. Variants differed mainly in engines and cabin arrangement, and Hughes's one-off Model 14-N2 carried auxiliary fuel tanks in the cabin with special radio and navigation equipment.
Operational History
The first Model 14 flew on July 29, 1937, piloted by Lockheed test pilot Marshall Headle. It entered commercial service with Northwest Airlines in October 1937, and aircraft were exported to Aer Lingus of Ireland, British Airways and KLM of the Netherlands. Other carriers included Air France, Japan Air Transport, Trans-Canada Air Lines and Continental Airlines. Lockheed built a total of 114 Model 14s. Licence production in Japan added 240 more: Tachikawa built 119 under license as the Type LO transport, and Kawasaki built 121 of its Type 1 cargo transporter, a lengthened development that Kawasaki went on to redesign as the Ki-56 freighter. In May and June 1938 a LOT Polish Airlines crew flew a Model 14 from California to Warsaw via South America and across the South Atlantic, covering 15,441 miles on an experimental delivery flight. On July 10, 1938, Hughes left Floyd Bennett Field, New York, with four crewmates and flew via France, the Soviet Union, Siberia, Alaska and Minneapolis, covering 14,672 miles in 3 days, 19 hours and 17 minutes. That September, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from the Munich conference aboard a British Airways Lockheed 14 and was photographed beside it at Heston holding the signed agreement. During the Second World War civil Model 14s were pressed into military service, among them three impressed in Australia and one used by the US Navy as an executive transport, while the type's Hudson development served as a patrol bomber.
Afterlife
After the war a few Model 14s flew on with smaller operators, among them John Mahieu Aviation in Belgium. Its airframe's wartime career was flown mainly by the Hudson development, operated by the Royal Air Force, the USAAF and the United States Navy. Vintage Aviation News writes that surviving Electras still show the streamlined elegance that made them icons of early commercial aviation. Smithsonian Magazine records that the 1938 Hughes flight set a world record, circumnavigating the globe in just 91 hours.