prattwhitneywaspc

grace!

Here is a link to British Pathe footage of Charles Lindbergh flying this very aircraft (TWA, Lockheed DL-1 Vega, NC497H, c/n 135): YouTube: British Pathé - "Lindbergh Test Flight For Night Mail Aka Lindburgh Test Flight For Night Mail (1933)"

The DL-1 was a modernized version of the Lockheed Vega 5C and was developed by Detroit Aircraft. Three Detroit-Lockheed Model Ones (DL-1s) were assembled in Detroit, Michigan, with a duralumin fuselage made in the Michigan city and wooden wings made by Lockheed in Burbank. This aircraft, the first of the DL-1s, was completed in February 1930 and in June 1930, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart borrowed the aircraft and set three woman's speed and load records at Grosse Isle Airport, Detroit. 1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/LoopPat/4206.htm

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...