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LOCKHEED VEGA Model 2 NC858E
VEGA 2 to VEGA 5B to VEGA 5C
This airplane is a Lockheed Vega Model 5B (S/N 66; ATC #140)
manufactured in May 1929 by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation,
Burbank,
CA. It left the factory with a Wright Whirlwind
J-6 engine (S/N 10495) of 300 HP. It was a five-place
airplane.
It sold on September 22, 1930 to Van De Mark Flying Service,
Lockport, NY. A month later, Lockheed converted it
to a Vega 5B (a seven-place airplane) under ATC #227, with
a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine. Van De Mark flew
it until 1933 and had it converted to a Vega 5C under ATC
#384 sometime during that year.
We find NC858E landing at Tucson on February 25, 1931 flown
by Allan Van De Mark. He carried three passengers,
Mr. & Mrs. William H. Lee and their son (what a trip
it must have been for that young man!). They were westbound
from Amarillo, TX to Los Angeles, CA. This might have
been a charter flight in their newly modified Vega 5B.
Van De Mark sold it on November 11, 1935 to Columbia Airways,
Bloomsburg, PA who flew it for about a year and a half. They
sold it to Beech Aircraft Corporation, Wichita, KS on April
12, 1937. Beech turned around and sold NC858E on May
1, 1937 to Standard Aerial Surveys, Inc., Hackensack, NJ. It
was modified as of May 12, 1937 to receive a camera installation.
NC858E in Standard Aerial Surveys Livery, ca. Sometime
Between 1937-1943
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Image above, from friend of dmairfield.org Tim Kalina, shows
858E under the ownership of Standard Aerial Surveys (company
name painted on the side is clear in the original). The airplane
was either being readied for fueling or freshly fueled (note
subterranean gas pit in foreground). Location unknown.
The image below was taken during our airplane's service
with Standard Aerial Surveys. Neither the pilot nor the photographer
cited in the accompanying article signed the Davis-Monthan
Airfield Register.
In the picture we see the INTERIOR of NC858E after it was
modified for aerial photography. The article describes the
airplane as being, "...similar to the planes used by Wiley
Post on his world flights and by the late Amelia Earhart..."
The son of photographer Charles H. Dean shared this article
from the Providence [Rhode Island] Journal of May 16, 1939.
Our thanks to Mr. Douglas Dean.
On September 8, 1943, the Charles
H. Babb Company, New York,
NY acquired NC858E and in three-month’s time sold it
to Harold E. Curran, Syracuse, NY. In 1944 Curran “sold” the
airplane to Les Mauldin, Brownsville, TX. There was
no bill of sale, and Curran’s agent took money from
Mauldin and disappeared!
Final sale was in 1944 to Jimmie
Angel and Jack Baker, Managua,
Nicaragua. It was registered AN-ABL under their ownership. It
suffered an accident at Boaco, Nicaragua on February 19,
1945. No details on the fate of pilot, passengers or
airplane. No further information.
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UPLOADED: 04/19/06 REVISED: 06/19/07, 10/26/08
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