Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra Explained

The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra was an American civil passenger and cargo aircraft built by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation during the late 1930s. An outgrowth of the earlier Model 10 Electra, the Model 14 was also developed into larger, more capable civil and military versions.

Design and development

The design, developed by a team led by Don Palmer, was a scaled-up version of the original Model 10 Electra, with passenger seating increased from 10 to 14. It was intended to compete commercially with the contemporary Douglas DC-2 and the Boeing 247. The first Model 14 flew on July 29, 1937, piloted by Marshall Headle. Early 14's used the Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet engine; later the Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 was offered as an option.

Lockheed built a total of 114 Model 14s; another 119 were built under license in Japan by the Tachikawa Aircraft Company under the designation Tachikawa Type LO Transport Aircraft Thelma.Another 121 were built by Kawasaki Aircraft Company under the designation Kawasaki Type 1 cargo transporter. The type 1 cargo's fuselage was lengthened by 1.4m (04.6feet), enabling the fitting of larger cargo doors.[1]

In Japan during the late 1930s and early 1940s, in common with most large economies of the time, research was being conducted into pressurised cabins for high-altitude flight. In similar fashion to the Lockheed XC-35, in the United States, Tachikawa incorporated a pressurised cabin into new forward and centre fuselage sections for one of the locally built Lockheed Type LO Transport Aircraft. The resulting research aircraft was given the long designation Tachikawa-Lockheed Type-B high altitude research aircraft and the company designation Tachikawa SS-1. The first conversion was completed in May 1943, re-engined with 2x 1080abbr=onNaNabbr=on Mitsubishi Ha-102 14-cylinder radial engines. The two conversions carried out a brief flight testing programme.

Operational history

The Model 14 entered commercial service with Northwest Airlines in the US in October 1937. Aircraft were exported for use by Aer Lingus of Ireland, British Airways and KLM of the Netherlands. The Model 14 was the basis for development of the Lockheed Hudson maritime reconnaissance and light bomber aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force, USAAF, United States Navy and many others during World War II.

In 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, after signing the Munich Agreement, returned to London Heston Airport on board a British Airways Lockheed 14, and was famously photographed beside the aircraft (registration),[2] showing to the crowd the signed document, which he would later that day describe as bringing "peace for our time".

Record-breaking flights

In May 1938, a team of aviators of the Polish airline LOT, made up of Wacław Makowski, director of LOT and first pilot, Zbigniew Wysiekierski, second pilot, Szymon Piskorz, mechanic and radionavigator, Alfons Rzeczewski, radio-navigator and Jerzy Krassowski, assistant, accomplished an experimental flight from the United States to Poland. This flight was carried out on board one of the aircraft bought by LOT, manufactured by Lockheed in California, a Lockheed Model 14H Super Electra (of which the Polish registration was SP-LMK.[3]). The crew took off from Burbank (Los Angeles) where these aircraft were manufactured, and after a tour of South America, flew the Atlantic from Brazil to West Africa en route to Warsaw. A poster celebrating the flight can be seen in a US Library of Congress/Matson Archive photo of the LOT/Imperial Airways Sales office in Jerusalem about 1939.[4]

The distance covered was of 15441miles. They flew via the cities of Mazatlan, Mexico City, Guatemala, and Panama, then via the South American cities of Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Rio de Janeiro and Natal in Brazil. They flew across the South Atlantic to Dakar, Senegal, in Africa and then to Casablanca, Tunis, and then on to Rome, Italy. The final leg of the flight brought them to Warsaw, Poland. The flying time was 85 hours between 13 May and 5 June. The overflight of the Atlantic - from Natal to Dakar - lasted 11 hours and 10 minutes (1,908 mi/3,070 km).[5] This feat by Polish aviators marked the history of air communication on a world level. (Prior to this flight airliners were delivered across the Atlantic as deck cargo on ships [6]).

Howard Hughes flew a Super Electra (NX18973) on a global circumnavigation flight. With four crewmates (Harry Connor, copilot; Tom Thurlow, navigator; Richard Stoddart, engineer; and Ed Lund, mechanic), the Lockheed 14 took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York on July 10, 1938. The flight, which circled the narrower northern latitudes, passed through Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks, Alaska and Minneapolis before returning to New York.[7] [8] The total distance flown was 14,672 mi (23,612 km) and total time was 3 days, 19 hours, 17 minutes.

Variants

Data from:Lockheed Aircraft since 1913[9]

Model 14: The basic airliner version of the Super Electra, variants with cabin arrangement changes, engine types etc. denoted by an alpha-numeric suffix.
  • Model 14H:20 aircraft powered by 2x 875hp Pratt & Whitney R-1690-S1E-G Hornet engines
  • Model 14H-2:32 aircraft powered by 2x 875hp R-1690-S1E2-G engines, 12 of which were re-engined with 1200hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S1C3-G Twin Wasp engines to become 14-08s.
  • Model C-14H-1:A single 14-H (c/n 1401) converted with a bulged cabin roof and large freight door for carriage of bulky loads, later re-converted to 14-H for airline use in Brazil and Nicaragua.
  • Model 14-08:12 14H-2s re-engined with 1200hp R-1830-S1C3-G engines by Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA)
  • Model 14-WF62:An exclusively export version powered by 2x 900hp Wright SGR-1820-F62 Cyclone engines for British Airways (8), KLM (11) and Aer Lingus (2).
  • Model 14-WG3B:Another export version, a.k.a. 14-G3B, powered by 2x 900hp GR-1820-G2B engines. With the exception of four aircraft delivered to Romania, all WG3Bs were delivered to Japan, either to Tachikawa Hikoki K.K. for re-sale or direct to the operator Nihon Hikoki K.K. (Greater Japan Airways Co. Ltd).
  • Model 14-N:Two aircraft were completed as personal transports as 14-Ns, powered by 2x 1100hp GR-1820-G105 engines.
  • Model 14-N2:One aircraft built for Howard Hughes, for a round the world flight, powered by 2x 1100hp GR-1820-G102 and fitted with auxiliary tanks in the cabin as well as, survival equipment, navigation equipment and communication equipment.
  • Model 14-N3: One aircraft with 2x 1100hp GR-1820-G105A engines
  • Lockheed Type LO Transport Aircraft:Long designation given to 30 Model 14-WG3B aircraft delivered by Lockheed for use by Nihon Koku K.K. (Greater Japan Airways Co. Ltd). Given the allied reporting name Toby.
  • C-111
  • Three civil Model 14s impressed in Australia. FY1944 serials assigned after the fact
    XR4O-1
  • One L-14 (USN 1441, mfr. serial 1482) used as USN executive transport
    Tachikawa Type LO Transport Aircraft
  • Japanese licence production of the Model 14-38 by the Tachikawa Aircraft Company Ltd (立川飛行機株式会社 Tachikawa Hikōki K.K.?) powered by 2x 900hp Mitsubishi Ha-26-I 14 cylinder radial engines. The 119 production aircraft were given the allied reporting name Thelma.
    Kawasaki Army Type 1 Freight Transport
  • Long designation of the Ki-56
    Kawasaki Ki-56
  • Freight transport aircraft redesigned by Takei Doi at Kawasaki Kokuki Kogoyo K.K. (Kawasaki Aircraft Company), from the Type LO. Careful attention to weight reduction, a 1.5m (04.9feet) increase in rear fuselage length and power from 2x 950hp Nakajima Ha-25 14-cylinder radial engines improved performance and handling. The 121 production aircraft were given the Allied reporting name Thalia.

    Operators

    Civilian

    Military

    Canada
    Estonia
    Japan
    South Africa
    United Kingdom

    Accidents and incidents

    References

    Bibliography

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. http://military.sakura.ne.jp/ac/ki56.htm "Kawasaki Type 1."
    2. Book: Britain's Imperial Air Routes, 1918 to 1939: The story of Britain's overseas airlines . 2016 . Fonthill . 978-1-78155-370-1. Revised. 160–161.
    3. Coates, Ed. "SP-LMK Lockheed 14-H." edcoatescollection.com. Retrieved: February 19, 2010.
    4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/74784995@N00/2442043468/sizes/o/ "LOT Poster Historic Flight."
    5. Po wielkim locie doświadczalnym P.L.L. "Lot". "Skrzydlata Polska" June-July 1938, nr. 6-7/1938 (164-165), p.172-173
    6. http://pallas.cegesoma.be/pls/opac/opac.search?lan=F&seop=6&sele=51&sepa=12&doty=___&sest=aeronautique--pologne&chna=&senu=68503&rqdb=1&dbnu=1 "Aviation en Pologne: (1934-1938)."
    7. Book: Dietrich . Noah . Thomas . Bob . Howard, The Amazing Mr. Hughes . 1972 . Fawcett Publications, Inc. . Greenwich . 136–139.
    8. https://books.google.com/books?id=n08EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 "A Rich Young Texan with a Poet's Face Gets Hero's Welcome on World Flight."
    9. Francillon 1987
    10. Book: Osborn . Patrick R. . Operation Pike : Britain versus the Soviet Union, 1939-1941 . 2000 . Greenwood Press . 9780313313684 . 146 .
    11. Web site: ASN Wikibase Occurrence #74088. Aviation Safety Network. 21 January 2015.
    12. Web site: BBC - WW2 People's War - St Dennis and Goss Moor - Military Aircraft Crashes. 12 December 2006. 21 June 2017.
    13. Web site: Катастрофа L-14 Super Electra авиаотряда Дальстроя МВД СССР в а/п Зырянка. Accident L-14 Super Electra near Zyrianka. ru. airdisaster.ru. 24 October 2013.
    14. Web site: Катастрофа L-14 Super Electra авиаотряда Дальстроя МВД СССР близ Берелёха. Accident L-14 Super Electra near Berelakh. ru. airdisaster.ru. 24 October 2013.

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