Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Long-range touring monoplane

Power Plant:

One 410 kw (550 hp) Pratt & Whitney S1-E Wasp nine-cylinder supercharged radial air-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The Lockheed Sirius was designed by Gerrard Vultee for Colonel Charles Lindbergh, being built at Burbank, California. It was a low-wing monoplane with two cockpits and was used to set a number of US trans-continental records. A further aircraft (c/n 152) was built as a Sirius for Capt George R Hutchinson of Baltimore in 1930 for an attempt on the New York – Paris record. Named Richmond Virginia, USA it was modified in that it had the cockpits closed off and long-range tanks installed. However, it was badly damaged at Los Angeles on 2 August 1930 and plans for the flight were abandoned. In 1931 it was re-built for Douglas Fairbanks and Victor Fleming of Beverley Hills, California, for sport flying and was converted to Sirius 8 Special configuration. In 1934 it was converted to Altair 8D specifications with a Wasp SE engine (serial 5222) and a new wing.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith chose the Lockheed Altair for the 1934 London – Melbourne Air Race. The aircraft chosen (NR118W c/n 152 – ex NC118W, X118W) was the second-hand Sirius 8A which had been built for Capt Hutchison. It was bought by Kingsford Smith from Lockheed Aircraft Corp on 25 June 1934 and Lockheed set to work to convert it to Altair 8E configuration, although some documentation refers to it as an ‘Altair 8D (special)’, this involving fitting a new wing with a retractable undercarriage, a special supercharged variant of the Wasp radial engine, and four extra fuel tanks to increase the capacity to 1,900 litres (418 Imp gals). It thus became the 4th Altair of the total of eight built and was given a new serial number (8E), the registration X118W being allotted. It was painted blue and silver with white trim.

It was shipped to Australia as deck cargo on the Sports Deck on board the SS Monterey. Named ANZAC it was offloaded at Anderson Park, Neutral Bay, a suburb of Sydney, NSW from where Kingsford Smith, with P G Taylor on board, flew it to Mascot. Objections arose in relation to the name and the new name Lady Southern Cross was affixed, along with the Australian registration (VH-USB), Certificate of Registration No 482 being issued on 27 July 1934. Subsequently a number of inter-capital records were set, including Melbourne to Sydney on 3 August 1934 in 2 hrs 11 mins, Melbourne to Perth in 10 hrs 19 mins on 8 September 1934, Perth to Adelaide in 6 hrs on 11 September 1934, and Adelaide to Sydney in 3 hrs 32 mins on 11 September 1934. On 19 September it was flown from Sydney to Brisbane in 2 hrs 35 mins, and on 20 September from Brisbane to Sydney in 2 hrs 16 mins.

As the aircraft was readied for the Air Race, problems arose with authorities as to the aircraft’s gross weight, and this was reduced from 3,357 kg (7,400 lb) to 3,039 kg (6,700 lb), thus considerably reducing the range, which would have, had it been a successful entrant in the 1934 Race, necessitated the making of nine refueling stops instead of the planned five. In Australia more fuel tanks were installed, increasing capacity to 2,337 litres (514 Imp gals), the modifications being designed by L J R Wackett.

The story of the aircraft leaving for London, suffering cracks in the engine cowling at Cloncurry, and subsequent withdrawal from the race, is well documented. Too late to arrive in the United Kingdom for the race, Kingsford Smith decided to fly the aircraft to the United States for sale and VH-USB was flown via Fiji and Hawaii to the United States in a flight time of 54 hours. On 20 October 1934, the same day the Centenary Race started from London, Kingsford Smith and P G Taylor flew the Altair from Suva to Honolulu, a distance of 11,635 km (7,230 miles).

On 3 November 1934 it was flown from Wheeler Field, Hawaii to Oakland, California to the Lockheed factory. The Altair’s Australian registration was cancelled on 20 June 1935. It was flown from Burbank, Los Angeles to Chicago, Illinois on 15 September 1935, and on to New York on 17 September where it was loaded aboard the MV Dalhem and shipped to Britain. In October it was taken by barge to a field beside the Thames River and flown to Croydon where it became G-ADUS, this being allotted for the purpose of one flight from England to Australia.

On 25 October 1935 Kingsford Smith and Tommy Pethybridge left Croydon but were forced to divert to Brindisi in Italy to avoid weather, the aircraft returning to Croydon the following day. Kingsford Smith decided to ship the aircraft back to Australia due to his ill-health but funds were not available so it was decided to fly. On 6 November 1935 the aircraft, flown by Kingsford Smith, with Tommy Pethybridge as engineer, left Lympne in the United Kingdom to fly to Australia in an attempt to break the record set by Scott and Black in the DH.88 Comet in the 1934 race. Fuel was obtained in Athens and the crew continued to Baghdad in Persia and Allahabad in India.

However, the aircraft disappeared off the coast of Burma on 8 November and the crew was lost in the Bay of Bengal. Had the crew completed the journey to Melbourne, it was calculated they would have arrived in Melbourne in 67 hours, four hours faster than the record. During searches for the machine and crew a wheel and undercarriage leg were salvaged and this is on exhibition at the Brisbane Museum, QLD. In the 1990s a number of expeditions were mounted to try to locate the wreckage in the Gulf of Martababa off Burma where it was thought to have been lost but these were not successful.

Fuselage framework was of wooden monocoque construction similar to that of the Lockheed Vega series. The cantilever wing framework was built up of box-type spar beams and girder type wing ribs, the framework being covered with plywood. The outer surfaces of the wing and fuselage were given a covering of fabric to add strength and provide a base for a better finish. The cantilever tail-group was of wooden construction, the horizontal stabilizer being adjustable in flight, and all movable surfaces were statically balanced.

In the 1950s a movie was made on the life of Kingsford Smith and the CAC Boomerang (A46-30) was painted to represent the Altair. In a later TV series a North American Harvard was painted as VH-USB. In 1995 Sydney businessman, Dick Smith, announced he was proposing to have a replica of the Altair built, that it would be flown at a number of aviation events, and eventually be retired to a museum. In 2007 an announcement was made this full-scale replica of the Altair VH-USB was to be built on the grounds of the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra. Using plans and drawings obtained from Lockheed it was to be fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine. The project was to be managed by Michael Costello and aircraft designer William Whitney was to be involved. However, in due course the plans were cancelled and the aircraft was not built.

Only a small number of Altairs were built, these including: NC13W (c/n 143) for Joan Shankle, sold later to Louise Chamberlin (nee Ashby) and named Miss Stratosphere. Acquired by the US Army it crashed at Bakersfield, California; NC15W (c/n 145 – ex NR15W) built as a Sirius demonstrator in 1930 which was converted to Altair configuration in May 1931 and named The Crusader. It was used for inter-city record flights but crashed on Staten Island 29 September 1931; N119W (c/n 153 – ex NR119W, BuAero 32-393) spent sometime with the US Army and was given the type number YIC-25. Built as a Sirius it was the first Lockheed aircraft with a retractable undercarriage. Converted to Altair configuration in July 1931 it was flown on cross-country flights and took part in the Bendix and Thompson Trophy Races of 1931. It was damaged in a belly landing in 1932.

X8494 (c/n 176) was built for McFadden Publications as an Altair Special. Named Gold Eagle it was the personal transport of the publisher, Bernair MacFadden and flew non-stop from Montreal, Canada to Havana, Cuba in April 1932. It became Miss Liberty and attempted to fly New York – Dublin – Paris but crash landed in the sea off Kinsale Harbour, Ireland on 13 May 1932.

Aircraft 9054 (c/n 179) was a Model DL-2A Altair built for the US Navy as the XRO-1 and was evaluated as a command transport. X12222 (c/n 180 – NR12222, NC12222) was a DL-2A Altair for TWA (Transcontinent & Western Air) of Kansas and used as a mail carrier on the Company’s routes. In June 1932 it was converted to Orion configuration, eventually ending up with a number of owners until obtained by Swiss Air in 1976, painted as the Swissair Orion HB-LAH (c/n 189) and placed on display in Lucerne. It is now on display at the Swiss Air Transport Museum as CH-167.

NX18149 (c/n 214 – ex N148149) was built by Airover, which later became the Lockheed Vega plant, from spare parts three years after the production line closed. It was fitted with a Menasco Unitwin engine, this comprising two six-cylinder in-line Menasco engines of 119 kw (160 hp) geared to a single propeller. Named Flying Test Stand it was sold in 1940 and converted to Altair 8D configuration. It is thought to have been burnt with other wrecks in 1943.

A non-flying scale replica was built, painted as VH-USB and displayed at a number of events on Australia’s east coast. This aircraft was built by Animax Film Industries in Sydney for History Maker International. It was used by Film maker Damien Lay to conduct tests in order to attempt to dispel many of the theories surrounding the disappearance of the original aircraft. These studies were examined in a documentary film ‘Find a Penny. Find a Plane’ which was in production in 2010, and the replica was used in the making of the film The Lost Anzac. The replica has the same dimensions as the original Altair, featuring working controls, with a dummy Pratt & Whitney engine installed. It was to be eventually fitted with an operating engine and, after the installation of an undercarriage, would be wind tunnel tested to examine the aerodynamics of the original aircraft. It was expected it would in the long run be able to taxi.

The replica was built over a period of two months and is said to have been built from Lockheed plans, these plans being difficult to locate due to the Lockheed plant at Oakland, California being closed. However, plans were located in the hands of private organisations and these were able to be used. When the basic aircraft was completed on 8 November 2010 the aircraft was assembled at Anderson Park, Neutral Bay, NSW from where Kingsford Smith flew the original aircraft. This replica after sometime was obtained and placed on display at the National Air Museum at Moorabbin, VIC.