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LOCKHEED ORION 9 NX and NC960Y
THE VERY FIRST LOCKHEED ORION
This airplane is a Lockheed Orion 9 (S/N 168; ATC unassigned
at date of mfg.) manufactured during February 1931 by Lockheed
Aircraft Corporation, Burbank,
CA. It left the factory
with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp C engine (S/N 3900) of
450 HP. It was a seven-place airplane, weighing
5,200 pounds. It had five fuel tanks installed with
a total capacity of 122 gallons. It also had retractable
landing gear, a first for a multiple passenger, commercial
airliner. It was issued an NX license at manufacture,
because the ATC# had not been issued yet.
NX960Y first descended into Tucson on April 24, 1931 at
10:30AM. It was flown by Marshall
Headle, who worked
for Lockheed. He carried five passengers identified
in the Register simply as Hall, Squires, White, Van Auten
and Stroll. They were westbound from Detroit, MI to
Burbank, CA, sporting the NX registration.
You may see another image of NX960Y here.
Scroll down that page a bit.
On April 30, 1931
the airplane was sold to Bowen Air Lines, Inc., Fort Worth,
TX, with a lien held by Lockheed Aircraft Corp. The
second landing was on May 3, 1931. The
airplane again wore the NX registration number and was piloted
by Headle. He carried three unidentified passengers. They
were traveling eastbound from Burbank, CA to Fort Worth,
TX. This was undoubtedly the ferry flight from Lockheed
to Bowen. It was flown on Bowen routes throughout the
mid- and southwest between 1931 and 1933.
On May 6, 1931, ATC# 421 was issued to Lockheed for the
airplane. It was now called an “Orion 9” and
the NC registration was granted. The third and final
landing by NC960Y occurred sometime between August 24 and
September 4, 1931 (for some reason, visitors were not very
careful about entering dates in the Register during this
period). It was flown by P.F. Hotchkiss carrying three
passengers westbound from Burbank, CA to Fort Worth, TX.
It suffered a minor accident at Fort Worth on August 26,
1931. It was ferried to the Lockheed factory and repaired. It
had another accident at Tulsa, OK on June 2, 1933. The
pilot, R. Stein Lee, and two passengers were injured; one
passenger unhurt. The airplane was not rebuilt and
its file was closed on November 15, 1933 when its license
expired. No further information.
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UPLOADED: 06/24/06 REVISED: 07/06/06
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