Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior
Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior Scale 1/48
I wish I could find a better Picture.
The Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior, more commonly known as the Lockheed 12 or L-12, is an eight-seat, six-passenger all-metal twin-engine transport aircraft of the late 1930s designed for use by small airlines, companies, and wealthy private individuals. A scaled-down version of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, the Lockheed 12 was not popular as an airliner but was widely used as a corporate and government transport. Several were also used for testing new aviation technologies.
Design and development After Lockheed had introduced its ten-passenger Model 10 Electra, the company decided to develop a smaller version which would be better suited as a "feeder airliner" or a corporate executive transport. At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce had also sensed the need for a small feeder airliner and announced a design competition for one. In order for a candidate to qualify for the competition, a prototype had to fly by June 30, 1936.
Lockheed based its candidate, which it named the Model 12 Electra Junior, around a smaller, improved version of the Electra airframe. It would carry only six passengers and two pilots but would use the same 450 hp (340 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior SBradial engines as the main Electra version, the 10A. This made it faster than the Electra, with a top speed of 225 mph (362 km/h) at 5,000 ft (1,500 m). Like the Electra, the Model 12 had an all-metal structure, trailing-edge wing flaps, low-drag NACA engine cowlings, and two-bladed controllable-pitch propellers (later changed to constant-speed propellers). It also had the Electra's twin tail fins and rudders, which were becoming a Lockheed trademark. The landing gear was a conventional tail-dragger arrangement, with the main wheels retracting backwards into the engine nacelles; as was often the case with retractable gear of the period, the wheel bottoms were left exposed in case a wheels-up emergency landing was necessary.
The original Lockheed 12 version, with Wasp Junior engines, was the Model 12A.Almost every Lockheed 12 built was a 12A or derived from the 12A. There was also a Model 12B, using 440 hp (330 kW) Wright R-975-E3 Whirlwind radials, but only two of this model were built. Although Lockheed had also announced a Model 12F, powered by Wright R-760 Whirlwind seven-cylinder radials, and a Model 12M, powered by 290 hp (220 kW) Menasco six-cylinder inline engines, neither of these versions reached production.
Operational history Even though the Lockheed 12 had won the government's feeder airliner competition, the airlines mostly rejected it, and very few Lockheed 12s were used as airliners. One notable airline user was the newly renamed Continental Air Lines, which had a fleet of three Lockheed 12s that ran on its route between Denver, Colorado and El Paso, Texas in the late 1930s. Another was British West Indian Airways Ltd., which flew the Lockheed 12 on Caribbean routes in the Lesser Antilles during the mid 1940s.
The Lockheed 12 proved much more popular as a transport for company executives or government officials. Oil and steel companies were among the major users. A number were purchased as military staff transports by the United States Army Air Corps, which designated the type as the C-40, and by the United States Navy, which used the designation JO, or in one peculiar case, R3O-2. With the arrival of World War II, many civilian Lockheed 12s were requisitioned by the U.S. Army and Navy, Britain's Royal Air Force, and the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Two civil Lockheed 12s ordered by British Airways Ltd. were actually intended for covert military espionage. Sidney Cotton modified these aircraft for aerial photography and, while pretending to conduct ordinary civil flights, used them to overfly and photograph many German and Italian military installations during the months preceding World War II.
Aviator Milo Burcham flew a Lockheed 12A in the 1937 Bendix Trophy Race from Burbank, California to Cleveland, Ohio. This 12A had been modified with extra fuel tanks in the cabin, allowing it to save time by making the entire 2,043-mile (3,288 km) trip non-stop. The 12A came in fifth at an average speed of 184 mph (296 km/h); this was an impressive performance, since the first and fourth-place winners were both privately owned Seversky P-35 fighters.
Lockheed built a total of 130 Lockheed 12s, ending production in 1941.
Civil models Model 12A
Powered by two 450 hp (336 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior SB radial engines. Around 100 built.
Model 12B
Like 12A, but powered by two 440 hp (328 kW) Wright R-975-E3 Whirlwind radial engines.