Chasing the WINGED STAR

Air Classics, Jul 2004 by Wainwright, Marshall

Later that year Tingmissartoq came back to Burbank for a pioneering improvement. Under Lindbergh's direction Lockheed redesigned the wing to accommodate retractable landing gear and added 25-mph to the airplane's speed.

In the same staunch monoplane, then float-equipped, the Lindberghs flew from Washington, DC, across the Bering Sea to Tokyo in July 1931.

They made history again in 1933 with a 29,000-mile survey flight from New York to Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Europe, the Azores, Africa, Brazil, and back to New York. In December 1933 Lindbergh presented the Tingmissartoq to the American Museum of Natural History.

THE POST-GATTY SAGA

Succeeding Sirius models were popular with sportsmen and long-distance flyers. Lockheed built 14 of them. In one, Justice for Hungary, two Hungarian pilots - Capts. George Endres and Alexander Magyar - flew to Budapest on 16 July 1931, a nonstop 3200-mile flight from Newfoundland across the North Atlantic and down the European continent.

Such flights established that the Burbank factory, whether run by Lockheed and Northrop or as part of the Detroit Aircraft family, built fast planes. And noted flyers like Turner, Hawks, Amelia Earhart, and Ruth Nichols sent them hurtling through the skies to new records that added to the Lockheed reputation.

Their feats were notable, but it remained for Wiley Post, quiet-spoken one-eyed "flyer's flyer;" his Australian-born navigator Harold Gatty; and the flashing white-and-gold Vega Winnie Mae to write the outstanding chapter in aviation's ledger during 1931.

There were only a few planes in this period of adventurous air travel whose names are still remembered. The Winnie Mae is one. In it on 23 June 1931, Post and Gatty took off from New York bound for Newfoundland on an around-theworld flight. Backing them was F.C. Hall, wealthy oil operator after whose daughter the Winnie Mae was named. As it roared off from Roosevelt Field the Vega weighed more than three tons. A little fog over the Atlantic, a little uncertainty about their location over England and Germany, a little mud in Siberia, and a little propeller damage in Alaska proved only trivial disturbances. The Winnie Mae made the trip almost without mishap and landed at Roosevelt Field eight days, 15-hrs, and 51-mins later, having covered 15,474-miles at an average of 146-mph.

ALTAIR CROSSES PACIFIC

Next in the Lockheed line was the Altair, a two-place sport plane with a hand-cranked retractable landing gear. It first flew in December 1930. The Altair had a top speed of 217-mph and boasted outstanding performance.

Lockheed built eight. One of them set a notable mark in 19.34 when Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith and Capt. P. G. Taylor flew the Lady Southern Cross from Brisbane, Australia, to Oakland in 54-hrs and 49-mins elapsed time. Taking off 20 October, they reached their destination on 4 November, making the first aerial crossing of the Pacific from west to east.

Tragedy befell the intrepid KingsfordSmith and his Altair a year later. In November 1935, the Australian and his co-pilot and navigator Thomas Pethybridge disappeared during an attempted record flight from London to Sydney.