History:

In the 1920s Lockheed introduced the Model 8 Sirius which had been designed by Gerald Vultee. This was followed by the Model 9 Orion in 1930, which seated six passengers and a pilot. It was of wood construction with a plywood skin and it had good performance and was the first transport aircraft fitted with a retractable undercarriage. Some 35 examples were built and five more were converted from Sirius and Altair configuration. Engines ranged from 336 kw (450 hp) to 481 kw (645 hp) and were from Pratt & Whitney and Wright. They were used by a number of US Airlines, and in Europe by Swissair.

Orion 9A NC12229 was manufactured by the Lockheed Aircraft Corp at Burbank, California in November 1931 and was a five-seat aircraft which had a weight of 2,041 kg (5,400 lb) and was fitted with a Pratt & Whitney SC engine (serial 1927) which provided 336 kw (450 hp). It had long-range fuel tanks which increased capacity by 462 litres (102 Imp gals). On 15 January 1932 it was sold to Hal Roach Studios Inc of Culver City and named Spirit of Fun. It was initially registered as a modified aircraft as NX12229 and also had a 15 cm (6 in) longer fuselage, a retractable tailwheel and a three degrees dihedral.

Later the Civil Aeronautics Administration changed the registration to NC12229 and the aircraft became based at Colorado Springs.  In July 1932 it made visits to Kansas City and the Grand Canyon. In the American Fall of 1932 it was loaded on board the Matson liner “S Monterey” and shipped to Australia, where it was to commence a round-the-world tour.

On 13 October 1932 the mcahine, the first US civil registered aircraft to fly within Australia, arrived in Sydney on the “SS Monterey after being shipped from Los Angeles. This aircraft, an Orion 9A (NC-12229 – the “Spirit of Fun”) was unloaded at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, transported to Anderson Park, Neutral Bay by barge, and flown by Capt J P Dickson to Mascot. The take-off run was said to be 183 m (600 ft). The aircraft and its crew (Dickson, Arthur M Loew, vice president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and a Mr Rosthal) were embarking on a round-the-world tour.

The aircraft flew to Melbourne on 15 October and then across to Wyndham, WA, from where it left on 17 October for Bali, Hong Kong on 22 October, Shanghai on 23 October, Calcutta on 5 November and Johannesburg on 11 November 1932. However, it hit a tree on take-off at Victoria Falls in Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on 17 November. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot killed; the passengers Loew and Rosthal being injured.