| L-14 Super Electra | |
|---|---|
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| Trans Canada Airlines Lockheed 14H2 c. 1938 | |
| Role | Civil cargo and passenger transport |
| Manufacturer | Lockheed Corporation |
| Designed by | Don Palmer |
| First flight | 29 July, 1937 |
| Introduced | October 1937 |
| Number built | 233 |
| Developed from | Lockheed L-10 Electra |
| Variants | Lockheed
Hudson Lockheed L-18 Lodestar |
The Lockheed L-14 Super Electra was a civil cargo and passenger aircraft built by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation during the late 1930s.
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The design was a scaled-up version of the original L-10 Electra; the design team was lead by Don Palmer. The first Model 14 flew on July 29, 1937, piloted by Marshall Headle. Lockheed built a total of 114 Model 14s; another 119 were built under license in Japan by the Tachikawa Aircraft Company under the designation Tachikawa Type LO "Thelma".
The L-14 entered commercial service with Northwest Airlines in October 1937. Aircraft were exported for use by Aer Lingus of Ireland, BOAC of Britain, Union Airways and National Airways Corporation (NAC) of New Zealand. The Model 14 was the basis for development of the Lockheed Hudson maritime reconnaissance and light bomber aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force, USAAF, United States Navy and many others during the Second World War.
In May 1938, a team of aviators of the Polish airline LOT, made up of Waclaw Makowski, director of the LOT and first pilot, Zbigniew Wysiekierski, second pilot, Szymon Piskorz, mechanic and radionavigator, Alfons Rzeczewski, radio-navigator and Jerzy Krassowski, assistant, accomplished an experimental flight from the United States to Poland. This flight was carried out on board one of the planes bought by LOT and manufactured by Lockheed in California, Lockheed L-14H Super Electra (of which the Polish registration was SP-LMK [1]). The crew took off from Burbank (Los Angeles) where these planes were manufactured, towards Warsaw.
The distance covered was of 15,441 mi (24,850 km). They flew over the Central American countries Mazatlan, Mexico City, Guatemala & Panama, then via the South American cities Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Rio de Janeiro & Natal in Brazil, then via the South Atlantic to Africa via Dakar, Senegal, Casablanca, Morocco & Tunis, Tunisia, then Rome, Italy, on to the last leg ending in Warszaw, Poland . The flight lasted 85 hours between May 13 and June 5. The overflight of the Atlantic - from Natal in Brazil to Dakar in Africa - lasted 11 hours and 10 minutes (1,908 mi/3,070 km). This exploit of Polish aviators really marked the history of air communication on a world level. [2]
Howard Hughes flew a Super Electra (NX18973) on a global circumnavigation flight. With four crewmates (Harry Connor, copilot and navigator; Tom Thurlow, navigator; Richard Stoddart, radio operator; and Ed Lund, flight engineer), the plane took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York on July 10, 1938. The flight, which circled the narrower northern latitudes, passed through Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Minneapolis, before returning to New York on July 14. The total distance flown was 14,672 mi (23,612 km).
General characteristics
Performance
Related development
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   | Lockheed R4O Super Electra - Lockheed PBO Hudson, Lockheed R4O Super Electra, by Jack McKillop |
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