lockheedmodel7

An ultimately unsuccessful early Lockheed design -- four Explorers were built (two "4's" and two "7's"), and all four were destroyed in crashes. This 7 Explorer (NR-101-W / cn 148) named "Yankee Doodle" had an especially cruel fate: after crashing, its wings were re-used on Wiley Post's Lockheed Orion-Explorer hybrid (NR12283) which was subsequently lost in a crash after takeoff near Point Barrow in Walakpa Lagoon, Alaska in 1933, killing both aviation pioneer Wiley Post and humorist Will Rogers. RIP.

see history at dmairfield.com/Collections/Cosgrove%20Collection/People/g...

The fourth and last Lockheed 7 Explorer built, NR101W (c/n 148). After an accident attempting take-off from Ancon, Panama, the wings from this aircraft would be salvaged and used on Wiley Post's ill-fated Lockheed Orion-Explorer hybrid, NR12283 (c/n 195), which would crash in Walakpa Lagoon, Alaska taking the lives of Post and humorist Will Rogers.

Aviator Art Goebel to the left side of the frame, his mother Emma Goebel, and famed Air Corps pilot Ira "Bert" Woodring on the right.

This is Lockheed Explorer c/n148, NR101W, 'Yankee Doodle', built for Goebel but never flown by him. Later sold to Pure Oil Company renamed 'Blue Flash' and flown by pilot Roy Ammel. Plane crashed on take off from France Field, Canal Zone on November 21, 1930.