Warbird Information Exchange

So a little birdie told me that somebody in Arizona is getting started on the restoration of a Lockheed Vega! The owner of the restoration shop is an infrequent poster but frequent lurker to this forum so maybe we can convince him to post some photos? A flying Vega certainly would be a cool thing to see! Short of somebody building a replica, this Vega is probably the only one any of us will ever see in the air.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

That's pretty exciting stuff. I hope we're able to learn more about this restoration, and see pictures of course!

Thanks for letting us know about this interesting project.

Peace,

David M

Albert-

Totally cool! It will be interesting to see what scheme the owner chooses. There are a bunch of early airline schemes that are neat, along with some great privately owned ones that would be fun. You said this might be the only one we ever see fly, does anyone (Cooper) know if Kermit has any interest in flying his? When he purchased it, was it not in flying condition?

On another note, Albert, does someone in Creve Couer owe me a photo or two of a certain 7W?

Thanks!

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

I wonder if that's NC12288

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachme ... id=3280145



http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachme ... id=3280156



Metal fuselage, ex-Blakesburg, ended up in Oklahoma, was groundlooped and damaged one wing tip. Haven't heard anything about it in a long time. Now registered in Arizona, http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry ... rtxt=12288

John Desmond also has parts and pieces of several in PA, http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry ... 0&PageNo=1




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http://www.biplanerides1.com/

Rick said it was ok to post some photos from the email he sent me so here's what I've got. I think they only built three or four metal fuselage Vegas but I don't know how many are left. Maybe this is it? The restoration will be done by Rick Barter's shop at Tucson Northwest Regional aka Downtown Marana Airport aka Avra Valley Airport. The goal, according to Rick and the plane's owner is to have it at Oshkosh next year. Rick is planning on starting a blog for the restoration but I don't have any details on that yet. Photos of the plane apart were taken recently by Rick Barter and the historical photo must be from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks archive.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

and yes Tulsaboy, I do owe you some shots of John's Spartan but I have not seen it with the covers off of it for many months so I'll try to get some shots this weekend. It just looks like a big fabric covered blob right now. Sorry for the delay, I have not been at the airport since the Waco Flyin back in June. Airplanes and turret parts have taken a back seat to work and three kids. My sister gave my nine year old daughter a horse two months ago so any spare time this Summer has been spent at the barn.

Because I had so much spare time, right.

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Albert,
I may be able to shed a little light on this particular Vega. NC12288, sn #161, was built as a DL-1B Special. Assembled from parts while Lockheed was in receivership in 1933 it was originally sold to John Morrell meat Packing Co. in Ottumwa, Iowa. Later it served for Braniff and Northern Consolidated Airlines among others. Was wrecked in Ruby AK in the late 50's or early 60's. Dad's business partner Jack Lowe purchased the remains in 1964. Dad and the Hoselton brothers, whom worked for dad, spent the next four years restoring the Vega to airworthy condition including building a complete new wing. After Jack died in 1968 dad ended up owning the airplane until he sold it to Tom Thomas in 1983. Under Thomas's ownership the airplane was damaged on more than one occasion. I last saw the fuselage for NC12288 in a fixture in a building in Eloy, AZ around 1999 or so and it was hurt pretty bad. The wing (also damaged pretty badly) was being repaired by John LaNue (Vickers Vimy) when I visited his hangar in N California in May of 2001.
As for the number of metal fuselage Vegas built I am pretty sure there were nine constructed with NC12288 being the last. The pictures above posted by baldeagle show NC12288 when it was used in a made for TV movie about Amelia Earhart (flown in the movie by Jim Appleby) and the air to air shot is mine. That was taken on Dec 30th 1983 on the delivery flight to the new owner in Oklahoma City. Pilot for that trip was Dave Dacy.
I'm glad to hear that the old girl will be put back into flying condition once more and hope to see it return to Antique Airfield (it's home for many years) in the future.

Brent Taylor
www.AntiqueAirfield.com

Thanks, Albert! I am just one of those enquiring minds... and I can sympathize with the busy lifestyle. Three daughters of my own mean the only airplane time is typically after bed-time...



Will look forward to seeing the photos- whenever they find their way my way...

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

Aha! Got ya! Gather round boys and girls and check out the size of the lurker fish I just pulled into the boat! Did you folks see the way I tossed that weedless tourist worm forum post over into the middle of that downed tree laying on the river bank? I drug that artificial bait right past that half submerged log thinking there might be a few choice Vintage/Antique lurker fish hiding back there but wow, Brent Taylor? By the way Brent, I'm not a catch and release lurker fisherman so now that you are on the "WIX stringer" you will be forced to participate once in a while.

Seriously, welcome to the WIX Vintage (real) Airplane forum and thanks for posting. I could not remember the details of your Dad's ownership of this plane but I remembered parts of the story as told to me by John Cournoyer back in the early 90s. I figure that between you and your father, you guys probably know more about antique airplanes than all of us combined. Having said that, we promise not to pester you too often!

It sure will be nice to see this beast back in the air and I hope that it's first trip back to the Midwest has two stops, Oshkosh and Blakesburg! Say hello to your father for me and again, thanks for posting that info. There's quite a bit of history there that I was not aware of.

Albert

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Hello All
I will try to keep you all up to speed on this project and needless to say we are very excited to be a part of it. It's current owner has taken very good care of NC12288 over the years. Brent the wing your father built is beautiful.


Rick

This is exciting! Often wondered where that one went! Look forward to reading up on the progress!

I have also heard rumors that someone in the Pacific Northwest was builting up the molds to build up wooden Vegas. With plans to build up several. Still havent been able to confirm it though.

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Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

I've heard similar rumors. I'd be interested to see a blog of this project as it progresses. Would be great to see her in the air soon, but 1 year seems pretty quick. I think they've got a lot of work ahead of them.

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Ryan Pemberton
www.pembertonandsons.com

Brent's dad Robert graciously allowed me to partially disassemble and sketch and photograph empennage and other details June 1981. A very welcome addition to my info collection in the early and very dry (info wise) years.

Here are scans of those photos with my captions:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v337/johnoder/DL1/

Here is my related web page:
http://www.aeromuseumservices.com
A teeny portion of the huge original drawing collection I have has been scanned to pdf and uploaded to files section at my web page.

Possibly Tom won't mind me sharing progress photos on his DL-2A Altair being built to drawings I provided.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v337/johnoder/DL2AParts/

Long ago I assumed most of my help would go to re-creations - nice to see one of the very few originals is being brought back to airworthiness.

John Oder

I would say this is no longer a rumor...

Wow John
You have saved me countless hours of scratching my head trying to figure where some of these bits go. I can't thank you enough for posting those pics. I am picking up the fuse next week and will begin the many structural repairs required.

Thanks Albert for getting this thread started.

Rick