BLUEGRASS AIRLINES

August 2007

Lineas Aereas Occidentales & the Lockheed Orion

By Allan Lowson

Picture from Wikipedia

Lineas Aereas Occidentales

In 1925 Walter T. Varney got the first private contract to fly U. S. mail in the Pacific Northwest on a line which he later developed into the Salt Lake-Seattle system and sold to United Air Lines six years later.

Walter Varney next turned his attention southwards. One night in March 1934 a Lockheed Orion of his new Lineas Aereas Occidentals arrived in Los Angeles, completing its first 1,700-mile trip from Mexico City in 10 hours. Lineas Aereas Occidentales (Western Air Lines) operated three planes a week over the route with five other Orions used on Varney Speed Lines services (Los Angeles-San Francisco). Some of the aircraft were marked as Varney Speed Lanes as shown in the heading photograph. In 1937 Varney was renamed as Continental, and has managed to carry on to this day surviving two bankruptcies on the way.

The following routes were taken from the OAG for August 1934 reproduced here, the only year of operation of Lineas Aereas Occidentales.

California – Mexico City (Route 158)

Heading	Distance	Down (M,W,F)	City Name	ICAO	Up (Tu,Th,Sa)	Heading	Distance
125	0	0200 lv	Los Angeles PT	KHHR	1840 arr	-	108
072	108		Tia Juana VOR	TIJ	116.50MHz	307	87
096	87	0350 lv	Mexicali PT	MMML	1720 lv	254	232
-	232	0635 arr	Nogales MT	MMNG	1605 lv	280	0
170	0	0755 lv	Nogales CT	MMNG	1645 arr	-	129
136	129	0900 lv	Hermosillo	MMHO	1550 lv	350	121
147	121	1005 lv	Obregon	MMCN	1445 lv	317	110
123	110	1135 lv	Los Mochis	MMLM	1325 lv	328	217
124	217	1345 lv	Mazatlan	MMMZ	1115 lv	305	227
096	227	1550 lv	Guadalajara	MMGL	0910 lv	306	248
-	248	1740 arr	Mexico City	MMMX	0700 lv	278	0

Mexico City - Tapachula (Route 160)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
112	0	0700 lv	Mexico City	MMMX	1805 arr	-	110
149	110	0915 lv	Tehuacan	MMHC	1650 lv	293	98
099	98	0945 lv	Oaxaca	MMOX	1530 lv	330	164
129	164	1105 lv	Arriaga	MMAR	1400 lv	279	128
-	128	1205 arr	Tapachula	MMTP	1300 lv	309	0

Mazatlan – La Paz (Route 162)

Heading	Distance	Down	City Name	ICAO	Up	Heading	Distance
275	0	0800 lv	Mazatlan	MMMZ	1530 arr	-	232
-	232	1030 arr	La Paz	MMLP	1300 lv	092	0

We have used Hawthorn Municipal rather than KLAX, it being a smaller airfield that fits in with the era. The airline route map from OAG shows the route from Los Angeles going either direct to Nogales or via Tia Juana and Mexicali. The timetables show the first stop after Los Angeles as being Mexicali, so we have shown the route via the VOR at Tia Juana – which would probably not have been there then!

One airfield at Arriaga is not included in Flightsim. John Lawler has provided a scenery file to download. Arriaga_1934.zip (87k) If you elect not to download the scenery, the direct route from Oaxaca to Tapachula is a heading of 112º for 284 nm. The return flight is at a heading of 292º

Times are PT, Pacific Time, MT, Mountain Time, and CT Central Time.

Early History of the Lockheed Company (Centennial of Flight & Wikipedia Text)

The Lockheed Company began in 1912 when the Loughead brothers, Allan and Malcolm, formed the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company in San Francisco. Their first aircraft, the Model G seaplane, debuted on June 15, 1913. It was the largest seaplane yet built in the United States. Though the brothers couldn't find a customer for their plane, they earned some income for the start-up company by flying passengers in their plane.

In the summer of 1916, the brothers moved to Santa Barbara, California, and, backed by Burton Rodman and other investors, formed the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company. Their first plane with the new company was the 10-passenger F-1 seaplane. John K. "Jack" Northrop, who would later form his own company, designed and helped build the hull and wings. The twin-engine biplane had a 74-foot (22.5-meter) upper wingspan, a 47-foot (14-meter) lower wingspan, twin booms, and a triple tail. It debuted on March 29, 1918. The Navy took delivery of it after a record-setting flight from Santa Barbara to San Diego on April 12, 1918, flying the 211 miles (340 kilometres) in only 181 minutes.

When World War I ended, Navy aircraft orders dried up. The brothers tried to sell a small sport plane, the S-1, but the market was saturated by surplus warplanes. The business barely survived by building two Curtiss HS-2L flying boats and by working as a subcontractor. But it wasn't enough, and the business went into liquidation in 1921. Northrop went to work for Donald Douglas.

On December 13, 1926, the Lockheed brothers (they changed their last name to avoid mispronunciation)) and a group of investors formed the Lockheed Aircraft Company. This company lasted for less than three years, but in that time, it developed and built the first Vega, designed by Northrop, who had returned to Lockheed. It was a cantilever high-wing wooden monoplane with a streamlined monocoque fuselage built from two half-shells of plywood that had been shaped under pressure in a concrete mould. It could hold four passengers and a pilot.

The Vega 1 first flew on July 4, 1927. Newspaper owner George Hearst bought it to compete in the Oakland to Hawaii Dole Race. Jack Forst and Gordon Scott piloted the aircraft, named the Golden Eagle, on the trip, but the two disappeared without a trace. This did not, however, deter future sales of the aircraft. The plane was used for several record-setting flights, including the first trans-arctic flight in April 1928 and the first flight over Antarctica in November 1928, both made by George Hubert Wilkins and Carl Ben Eielson, It also made the first solo transatlantic flight by a woman, Amelia Earhart; and the first solo round-the-world flight, made by Wiley Post. A total of 128 Vegas were built, 115 by Lockheed and nine by Detroit Aircraft Corporation after it acquired Lockheed in 1929.

The Lockheed Company also built seven Lockheed Air Express airplanes, which resembled the Vega except for the open cockpit and higher wings than the Vega. Designed by Northrop specifically for Western Air Express‘s airmail route between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, its development began late in 1927. One of the Air Express planes used the NACA cowling. A variant of the Air Express, the Explorer, was designed for a non-stop transpacific flight to Japan. The two Explorers built, though, both crashed. In the meantime, Northrop in 1928 had again left to begin his own company, and Gerard "Jerry" F. Vultee replaced Northrop as chief engineer.

In July 1929, Fred E. Keeler, an investor who owned 51 percent of Lockheed, decided to sell 87 percent of the company assets to Detroit Aircraft Company, a holding company. As part of Detroit Aircraft, the company continued building Vegas and also built the Lockheed 8 Sirius, which Charles Lindbergh used as a floatplane on several round-the-world survey flights for Pan American Airways in the early 1930s. The Sirius had fixed tail landing gear and two open cockpits. Retractable landing gear was added onto a successor aircraft called the Altair, which made the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Australia to the United States between October 20 and November 4, 1934.

The Lockheed 9 Orion was another successful plane built during this period. The Orion, which featured the NACA cowling and retractable landing gear, was a wooden monoplane that could carry a pilot and six passengers. The first Orion flew in early 1931. A number of U.S. airlines used it and it also flew in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side. An Orion-Explorer, constructed from Orion and Explorer parts, crashed in Alaska on August 15, 1935, killing Wiley Post and Will Rogers. It was the first airliner to have retractable landing gear and was faster than any military aircraft of that time. It was the last wooden monoplane design produced by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was designed and built by Richard A. Von Hake, but an interesting historical note is that Kelly Johnson of SR-71 fame was flight test engineer on the project. The Orion was the last design using many identical elements from the Lockheed designs preceding it. It primarily used all the elements of the Altair, but included a forward top cockpit similar to the Vega. Lockheed used the same basic fuselage mould and wing for all their early designs, hence the close similarities between them. The Orion featured an enclosed cabin with seating for the six passengers. The first Orion, tested by Marshall Headle, received its Approved Type Certificate on May 6, 1931.

Although designed with the passenger market in mind, its speed made it a natural for air races. The first Bendix race of 1931 had a showing of two Orions and three Altairs and one Vega in a race that had only nine aircraft competing. On July 11, 1935 Laura H. Ingalls flew a Lockheed Orion, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine, from Floyd Bennett Field to Burbank, California, establishing an East-West record for women. Two months later she flew it back to set a West-East record.

Many safe miles were flown in airline service and the headlines won by a few expert speed pilots proved the advanced design and reliability of the "Orion". Those that went into airline use as a passenger transport had their life span limited, however. In 1934 the Civil Aeronautics Authority issued a ruling prohibiting further use of single engine passenger aircraft from operating on all major networks. It also became mandatory to have a co-pilot and thus a two-seat cockpit arrangement on all such flights. The requirements of the ruling brought an end to the "Orion" as a passenger carrying airlines' airplane, but a number of leading lines converted their "Orions" to cargo or mail carrying machines exclusively. Because of their complicated wood construction they were often disposed of after minor accidents due to the cost of repairs. Many of the excess Orions were also purchased for service in the Spanish Civil War and destroyed in use.

In all, Lockheed built a total of 35 Orions costing $50,000 each new. It is not known if any survived past the 1940's except the one that survives to the present day. This lone remaining Orion was originally built as an experimental Altair (metal fuselage), then converted to Orion 9C configuration by the original designer of the Orion, Richard A. Von Hake, and others who worked for free during a slow period when the Lockheed factory was going into bankruptcy. It was later purchased by Shell Oil Company and flown by James H. Doolittle as Shellightning. Damaged in an accident in 1936, the 9C Orion was repaired at Parks Air College in St. Louis, Missouri, before being purchased by movie and racing specialist Paul Mantz in 1938. Mantz used it in film work and raced it in the Bendix Trophy events in 1938 and '39. After this its history is sketchy. It suffered a few minor accidents, went into storage for a few years, and by 1964 was sitting out in the open at the Orange County Airport. It was rebuilt to flying status by the famous "Fokker" restoration team and is on display at the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland in the livery of the original Swiss Air Orion.

—Judy Rumerman (Centennial of Flight – more history beyond the Orion on the Centennial Website) – Additional material from Wikipedia.

Lockheed References:

Bilstein, Roger E. The American Aerospace Industry. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.

Bowman, Martin W., compiler. Lockheed. Images of America. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: Tempus Publishing, Ltd., 1998.

Boyne, Walter J. Beyond the Horizons – The Lockheed Story. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Pattillo, Donald. Pushing the Envelope. Ann Arbor, Mich.: The University of Michigan Press, 1998.

Francillon, René J, Lockheed Aircraft since 1913. Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1987 & Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, 1987.

Flight Simulator Files

The Lockheed Orion by Jens Kristensen is listed at Avsim and Flightsim under the FSX sections as Orion_v1.zip, but installs in either FSX or FS2004.