|
LOCKHEED VEGA Model 5 NC972Y
SUCCUMBED TO HANGAR FIRE
This airplane is a Lockheed Vega Model 5 (S/N 160; ATC #384)
manufactured during May 1931 by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank,
CA. It left the factory with a Pratt & Whitney
Wasp engine (S/N 3898) of 450 HP. It was a seven-place
airplane.
It sold on May 28, 1931 to Parks Air College, East St. Louis,
IL. It is on this same day that we find this brand
new airplane descending into Tucson a little after noon. What
a sight and sound that must have been! It was flown by J.M.
Herschel carrying two unidentified passengers. They
were eastbound from Los Angeles, CA to St. Louis, MO on what
was undoubtedly the ferry flight from the factory to its
new home.
Parks kept NC972Y only four months before selling it to
the Phillips Petroleum Corporation, Bartlesville, OK. We
find the airplane at Tucson for the second time on October
8, 1931 flown by Billy
Parker. He carried his wife
as sole passenger. They were eastbound from Los Angeles
to Bartlesville. Parker was the aviation manager for Phillips. The
airplane remained with Phillips for five years. Below, NC972Y
in Phillips Petroleum livery.
Lockheed NC972Y in Phillips Petroleum Livery
 |
In 1933, during its Phillips tenure, NC972Y, below, was
identified under its wing with, "Official Use National Air
Races 1933".
Lockheed Vega NC972Y
 |
On December 22, 1936 it was sold to Aero Transport Corporation,
Grand
Central Air Terminal, Glendale, CA. It was used
for charter and movie work for the next three years.
On January 30, 1940, NC972Y was sold to E. Duke Gartner
of Palm Springs, CA. He kept it barely a year and turned
it over on December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on
Pearl Harbor, to Herbert L. White (California Aircraft Corp.),
Metropolitan
Airport, Van Nuys, CA.
A mortgage release held up its sale to the next owner, the
U.S. Engineer’s Office, War Department, San Francisco,
CA. It finally was transferred to the government on
January 8, 1943. According to the NASM record, the
airplane was to be operated outside the U.S. “per document
#77499”. It did not get a chance to do so, because
it was destroyed in a hangar fire at Van Nuys on October
10, 1943. Burned in the same fire was our Fokker Super Universal
NC9724.
---o0o---
UPLOADED: 06/22/06 REVISED: 07/07/06, 02/22/07, 02/20/09
|
