Lockheed Electra 10A
The New England Air Museum discovers the power of Lockheed's 10.
- By Phil Scott
- Air & Space magazine, September 2004
"I SAW AIRPLANES LIKE THIS ONE COMING AND GOING many times in my high school years,” says Bill Taylor, nodding at the Lockheed Electra in a hangar at the New England Air Museum, outside Hartford, Connecticut. Taylor’s boyhood home in St. Paul, Minnesota, was located on a cliff overlooking the Mississippi River and Holman Airport. Northwest Airlines sent its Electras in and out of the latter several times a day, flying passengers and freight to and from Chicago.
In 1934 this particular Electra, a 10A, serial no. 1052, rolled off the Lockheed assembly line in Burbank, California, just three serial numbers before the 10E, a model with more powerful engines, in which Amelia Earhart would disappear in the Pacific in 1937. The U.S. Navy was 1052’s first owner. Dressed in navy blue and bearing the Navy designations XR20-1 and BuNo 0267, the Electra was the personal transport of Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson. During World War II, it transported Assistant Secretary of Naval Air David Ingalls. Post-war, the airplane went through nine owners, working for a drilling company and carrying freight and passengers. In 1979, North Carolina resident Dolph Overton bought it from Skyway Aviation in Missouri and set about restoring it for his Wings and Wheels Museum.
In 1983, along came Grace McGuire, who dreamed of reenacting Earhart’s flight. Searching for a 10E, she found a basket case at a Christie’s auction. United Technologies (parent company of Pratt & Whitney, which had made the Electra’s engines) heard of her plan and offered to restore the 10E to flying condition. Once the aircraft was evaluated, however, it was plain that the project would bust its budget. Plan B: Find one of the more plentiful 10As, replace the R-985 Wasp Jr. engines with the more powerful R-1340 Wasps that the 10E wore, and use McGuire’s 10E for parts. In 1984, United Technologies bought Dolph Overton’s 10A and got to work. Then McGuire fell ill with Lyme disease, and United Technologies changed management and ditched the McGuire project. The company returned McGuire’s 10E to her (last spring, it was up for sale) and gave the 10A to the New England Air Museum.
There was no space for it at the time, so the museum put it up in a Pratt & Whitney employee’s storage space in Lisbon, Connecticut, with the proviso that if it remained there longer than 10 years he could have it. In 1994, two days before the deadline, the museum hauled the fuselage out in the sling of an Army National Guard helicopter and flew it to its brand-new hangar.
The 84-year-old Taylor, a 20-year museum volunteer, has been working on the restoration ever since. He and a team tore it down and cleaned it, bolted on the wings and the tail assembly, repaired damaged cowls and nacelles, rebuilt the engines, reassembled the instrument panel and landing gear, fabricated missing wooden parts, and stripped, polished, and painted everything. Now, with just the interior left to complete, Taylor is the only one working on the airplane.
Taylor has refurbished the exterior in the livery of Northwest Airlines. “When we got it, the question was: Do we restore it to the way it came off the line?” says Taylor. “But the feeling was we had enough military airplanes.”
The museum’s Electra is not ergonomically friendly: You have to bend over at a 90-degree angle just to enter the rear cabin doorway. Taylor has 10 red leatherette seats positioned on both sides of the cabin and an aisle barely wide enough to walk in. In the original Electra the seats were probably cloth-covered, Taylor says, but he has no clue as to the colors or pattern. (He asks that anyone who might recall Northwest Electra interiors call him at (860) 623-3305 or e-mail him at staff@neam.org.) There is a lavatory, he points out, behind a bulkhead door in the aft cabin, in a crawl space four feet square, with essentially a chamber pot tucked into one corner. “You had to think twice before you wanted to go to that bathroom,” he says.
Mysteries abound. There’s a vintage Electra radio microphone wrapped around a yoke, but no place to plug it in. “We’re trying to find where the radio equipment was installed, but none of the Electra pilots could recall it,” Taylor says. “I think it went under the copilot’s seat, but Grace said ‘No way.’ We have no instruction books that tell you how to put it back together. The external parts aren’t so bad—it’s obvious where the wings go.”
Related topics: Airplane Restoration Propeller Aircraft Airliners and airfreight carriers Golden Age of Flight
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Comments (12)
If you would were one of the many wondering where Grace McGuire's plane is located, go and visit the Santa Maria airport in California and view it for yourself.
Posted by Lewis Lambert on March 31,2008 | 07:17 PM
I am looking for original instrument panel or part numbers for instrument panel for Electra 10A. I believe I have all of them original but want to make shure.. Any help appreciated
Posted by does anyone have a a l does anyone have a picture of the instrument panel 10a on May 26,2008 | 07:27 PM
Check our web site for Electra 10A images, including original instrument panels. Do you also have a top (roof) panel? Address is http://www.LockheedElectra10A.com
Posted by HC Volker on May 26,2009 | 08:30 AM
I am a eight year old girl, who discovered Amelia Earhart when my Dad and I saw "Night at the Museum ,#II". From then on I have been extremely interested in studying her. We live 30 miles from Santa Maria, and I'd like to know how we could get to see the plane like hers.
(Note from Dad:) I am so inspired by Lili's excitement and fascination with Ms' Earhart and her adventures. This is the latest episode that has included History Detectives, library searches, rented movies, etc. As I was tucking her in one night, she said "Hey Dad! I'm going to be famous when I grow up, because I am going to solve her mystery!" Any assistance on our adventures would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Allen Root (Lili's dad) (805)550-2942 or allen.t.root@gmail.com EDITORS' REPLY: For the latest on the search for Amelia Earhart, go to www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/AEdescr.html
Posted by Lili Root on August 9,2009 | 02:35 PM
I flew for Skyway Aviation,Forney Field,Fort Leonard Wood, Mo, in 1969. We were a civilian contractor to the U.S.
Army.
At that time Skyway operated two L10's. I did not record the serial numbers, but the N numbers at that time were: N94N and N57573. I wondered if anyone can tell me which aircraft was serial #1052.
Thanks
Posted by Gary Schmidt on October 18,2009 | 09:56 AM
I flew as copilot on this aircraft while working for Skyway Aviation in 1969. At that time, Skyway operated two L10's.
I did not record the serial numbers, however the N#'s were:
N94N and N57573.
Can anyone tell me which of these was Serial #1052.
Thanks
Posted by Gary Schmidt on October 18,2009 | 11:00 AM
Hello everyone: I'm President of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Club; it's headquartered in Auburn, Indiana. We're planning a "Duesenberg Exhibition of Speed" at the Kendallville, IN Airport over Labor Day Weekend 2010. The FAA would be pleased if had an aircraft fly-in that same day. We're working on vintage Stinsons (once owned by EL Cord Corporation). Since Amelia Earhart owned a 1936 Cord, it'd be nice to get a Lockheed Electra 10A there also. Are there any out there that are flying? Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.
CORDially, Tim.
303-807-8397.
Posted by Tim Gilmartin on March 9,2010 | 12:17 PM
For Tim Gilmartin:
Try "Fantasy of Flight" in Polk City, FL. This is a private collector's museum, open to the public for an admission charge. One of the finest I have ever seen.
I recall that they have an Electra, not sure of the model.
Since he restores all his exhibits, it might still be flyable.
It's worth the try. They have a website -- FantasyofFlight.com
Good luck,
Posted by Lloyd Foight on March 26,2010 | 09:16 AM
I'm a little surprised to read of a re-enactment flight duplicating Amelia Earhart's last adventure. This was already done by Ann Pellegreno in 1967, using a fully restored and specially modified Electra 10-A (msn 1112). The entire aircraft restoration process and the 'round the world commemorative flight celebrating the 30-year anniversary of Amelia's tragic and mysterious loss, are all meticulously documented in Ms. Pellegreno's book "World Flight - The Earhart Trail" (Iowa State University Press, 1971). Much of the funding for this ambitious project came from Collins Radio and other aircraft parts manufacturers. This little book is an easy read, and contains tons of photos of the restoration process and the flight itself. Unfortunately, in the end, a landing at the famed Howland Island, where Amelia disappeared, was not possible. The island has been abandoned for decades and there was no runway there, and no facilities to service and refuel the Electra. After successfully locating and over-flying Howland, the landing was actually made at Canton Island on July 1, 1967. The plane iself is now on permanent display at Ottawa International Airport, wearing its original Trans Canada livery.
Posted by Art Tappan on May 17,2010 | 01:33 PM
I have seen an Electra 10A at the Pima Air and Space Museum. The left landing light has what appears to be a peculiar configuration. It haa a silver tube with a small lightbulb at its end which is right in front of the left landing light. I would appear that this small bulb and tube would interfere with the landing light.
Does anyone have a clue about that that "spare light" is?
Posted by Don Cassiday on May 5,2011 | 07:55 PM
A plane wreak lying in swamp, Markham, Papua new Guinea. Locals trying to submerge except the wing with the following Details on the metal plate:
Lockheed
Aircraft Corp
Burbank California
Seriel Number 2423 18P
Assem Number 222002 JJ
Inspector P (27)
Posted by Wilfred on September 19,2011 | 01:50 AM