Lockheed’s Electra — Part 1

The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation of Burbank, California, and the Douglas Aircraft Company in nearby Santa Monica were perennial rivals. Lockheed’s Constellation series of airliners were the main competitors to Douglas’s DC-6 and DC-7 in a ‘contest’ that was never conclusively won by either side.

Some history

Allan Loughead (later Lockheed) founded the eponymous company in 1926, after an earlier venture with his brother Malcolm had folded in 1920. An early model, the Vega, became famous, flown by many high-profile pilots of the day including Wiley Post and Amelia Earhart. The Vega set several speed records, including one by Post for flying around the world in eight days. Earhart flew a Vega solo across the Atlantic, becoming the first woman to do so and achieving celebrity status in the process.

Wiley Post’s Lockheed Vega “Winnie Mae” — photo courtesy ‘aircraft in focus’

The Lockheed Company became a victim of the Great Depression and was declared bankrupt, before being bought out in 1932 by a consortium led by the Gross brothers, who retained the Lockheed name. Chairman Robert E. Gross tasked his engineering team with building an all-metal twin-engine monoplane.

The result was the Model 10 Electra, which continued the company’s tradition of naming aircraft after stars. The Boeing 247, the pioneering design that was also emulated by Douglas Aircraft with the DC-2, inspired the clean…