One aircraft that gained notoriety in the early 1930s was the
Lockheed Vega. Designed and produced in Burbank, California in
the United States by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, the Vega was
a light, but strong wooden monoplane that became the aircraft of
choice in the business of setting aviation records.
The plane was first designed in 1927 by American aviation
pioneers John Northrop and Gerrard Vultee as a transport
aircraft. It was state of the art for its day, for it was
streamlined for speed, but was also capable of travelling longer
distances without refueling than many of the sister planes of
its era.
The Vega had a capacity to carry four to six passengers and
up to two crew, and saw much early use by various American and
Canadian commercial airlines, due to its unique combination of
speed and long range capability. These traits, and its spacious
cabin, made the Lockheed Vega a popular travel plane for
business executives of the day.
Despite its initial success as a commercial transport, the
Vega truly cemented its sterling reputation when several famous
aviators saw in its unique design the potential to set new
aviation records, or break previously standing ones. The first
trans-arctic flight was made in a Lockheed Vega in April 1928
by navigator Sir George Hubert Wilkins and his pilot, Carl Ben Eiselson. The pair would later make the first flight over
Antarctica in November of that same year.
Though American aviator and socialite Charles Lindbergh had
already set the bar as the first person to complete a solo
flight across the Atlantic Ocean; that flight still had yet to
be attempted by a woman. In 1932, it was the famous Amelia
Earhart of the United States who became the first woman to fly
solo across the Atlantic, and she did so in a bright red
Lockheed Vega.
Perhaps the most famous example of the Lockheed Vega was the
Winnie Mae, a plane piloted by American Wiley Post. Post and
Winnie Mae captured the imaginations of aviation enthusiasts
everywhere, when they completed two circumnavigations of the
globe, once in June 1931, and the second in July 1933. At one
point on his second historic flight, Post landed at Blatchford
Field near Edmonton, Alberta to refuel and get new spark plugs
for Winnie Mae.
128 Vegas were eventually produced by the Lockheed Aircraft
Company. With speed and style (and famous pilots) the Vega
carved its niche into aviation history.
Sources:
John Greaves Art –
http://www.johngreavesart.com Page:
Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae in Edmonton July 1933
http://www.johngreavesart.com/winniemay.html
Aviation-Central.com –
http://www.aviation-central.com
Page: Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega
http://www.aviation-central.com/famous/ab1c0.htm
The Ohio State University –
http://library.osu.edu
Page: Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program – The Papers
of Sir George Hubert Wilkins
http://library.osu.edu/sites/archives/polar/wilkins/wilkins.htm
U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission –
http://www.centennialofflight.gov
Page: Lockheed’s Early Years, 1912 -1940
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Lockheed_early/ Aero13.htm
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