LOCKHEED VEGA Model 5B NC160W
TWISTER TWISTED
This airplane is a Lockheed Vega Model 5B (S/N 126; ATC
#227) manufactured July 29, 1930 by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation,
Burbank,
CA. It left the factory with a Pratt & Whitney
Wasp engine (S/N 3164) of 450 HP. It was a seven-place
airplane.
It sold on July 29, 1930 to Temple Bowen, Ft. Worth, TX
for use on Bowen Air Lines. We find NC160W landing
at Tucson on July 30, 1930. It was piloted by L.B.
Andrews carrying two unidentified passengers. They
were eastbound from Los Angeles, CA to El Paso, TX. It
was undoubtedly the ferry flight of this one-day old airplane
to its new airline duties. Andrews and company appeared
to be in a hurry, as they landed at 5:50 and departed at
6:10PM.
After it was signed in to the Davis-Monthan Register on
that evening, however, the clock was ticking loudly for NC160W. Two
days after it landed at Tucson, and three days after it rolled
out of Burbank and flew to Texas, it was destroyed by a tornado
at Houston, TX on August 1, 1930.
---o0o---
UPLOADED: 06/06/06 REVISED: 02/19/09
|