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LOCKHEED VEGA Model 5B NC106W
FROM CORPORATE TRANSPORT TO THE AIRLINES
This airplane is a Lockheed Vega Model 5B (S/N 123; ATC
#227) manufactured during April, 1930 by Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation, Burbank,
CA. It left the factory with
a Pratt & Whitney Wasp C engine (S/N 2898) of 450 HP. It
was a seven-place airplane named “The Cherokee”.
NC106W was sold sometime during 1930 to Julian Oil & Royalties
Co., Oklahoma City, OK. It landed twice at Tucson,
on June 24, 1930 and on February 4, 1931. Both times
during its ownership by Julian Oil, and both times it was
flown by Luther E. Gray, corporate pilot for Julian Oil,
carrying a single passenger. The first landing, from
Los Angeles, CA to Oklahoma City, OK, might have been during
the course of the ferry flight from the factory to the new
owner. The second visit had the airplane enroute from
Yuma, AZ to Oklahoma City.
Julian Oil sold the airplane to M.W. Newton of Oklahoma
City during 1931. Newton sold it to Braniff Airways
Inc., Oklahoma City, on September 28, 1931. It began
service on Braniff routes and we find it on October 15, 1931 in the logbook of Register pilot R.W. Henderson in that role. Please direct your browser to Henderson's page and examine his Logbook #1, PDF page 23.
According to the NASM record,
NC106W suffered an accident near Columbia, MO on December
8, 1934. The pilot, Lewis Bowen was killed. The official accident report follows, courtesy of site visitor Colin Howell.
Accident Report, NC106W, April 15, 1935 (Source: Web)
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Eugene Vidal was the father of late author Gore Vidal.
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UPLOADED: 06/06/06 REVISED: 10/18/11, 11/13/12
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