Lockheed Twin Tails (was: Lodestar lands at flight museum)
 

"Lodestar lands at flight museum" is probably old news to the aviation buffs on this forum, but I saw a tv show on NGC this weekend about the move earlier this year of the Lockheed Lodestar CF-TCY sitting outside, to a museum in Victoria, Canada. Try catching a re-run sometime, it's great to see how they moved the fragile plane.

Picture below shows airliners.net picture of the Lodestar in it's old location.

I have an interest in this type of aircraft as the government of the Netherlands East Indies was probably the largest airline customer when they bought a fleet of 29 Lodestars before the outbreak of WW2.

Hanno

Attachment 23977

UCFV aerospace students to spruce up historic aircraft.

Tundra Survivor
 

Another Lodestar in Canada. Even though this one is in dire straits, a humongous effort is being done to saving it.

And surprisingly, there's a Dutch connection!

Hanno,

The Dutch also bought (I think 16) baby brother Lockheed 12's for Indonesia. These were the only ones fitted with dorsal turrets. They looked a bit ungainly on such a sleek aircraft.

Most were lost during the Japanese occupation and one was flown in a desperate escape from Sumatra to Ceylon with drums of fuel and hoses out the windows into the fuel tanks.

There is one left in a deserted hangar on Java which I have been attempting to buy for 20 years but trying to find the responsible family member of the now-deceased General who suddenly "owned" it in mysterious circumstances back in the 60's is almost impossible. It was still there when I looked a couple of years ago - with a Grumman Goose seaplane and a couple of T-6 Harvards.

Lang

Lang,

Thanks for your response. Interesting to hear about the survivor you located in Indonesia. Here´s hoping you somehow end up buying it and fly it "back" to Holland!

A Lockheed L-12 (or L-212?) is preserved at the Netherlands Military Aviation Museum at Soesterberg, The Netherlands. Details I found list it as c/n 1306, which was delivered 6 February 1942 to Netherlands East Indies Government as L2-38. Somehow it ended up in Denmark, where it last flew in the 1960s and then was retired to the Egeskov Museum. It was transferred to Soesterberg in 1985 and put on outdoor display (see pic I googled). It is currently being refurbished.

Interestingly, as the Netherlands East-Indies Army Air Corps (ML-KNIL) was the first military customer for the L-12 and no prototype was built, the suggestion was made the L-212 was in fact developed in conjunction with the ML-KNIL.
Indeed 16 seem to have been on strength during the Japanese invasion, but more were on order. Possibly some of the diverted ones ended up in Australia?

Besides the Dutch connection, there is a personal connection: there is a good chance Johannes Blok, my grandfather´s brother, flew in (or even piloted?) a Lodestar or L-212 during his chequered flying career.

Regards,
Hanno

Attachment 24142

Hanno,

A long while back when researching the Indonesian Lockheed 12 I found a Lockheed-Boeing magazine with photos of the Dutch aircraft on the production line. I am sure it said they were built to a Dutch requirement and that was the only customer.

There are a few around the world (all converted back to civil without turrets and I am sure the escapees all came through Australia - probably some were given RAAF numbers like the Ryan trainers that escaped)

Here is another:
 

There is a Lodestar under preservation in Gisborne, New Zealand, the first city in the world to see the sun each day!

Link to the site: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~av8or/GAPS/index.html

Rob

Not to forget
 

The world's only airworthy Hudson...

http://oldcmp.net/Images/Aircraft/Hudson/hud4_5.jpg

Link.

My friend Doug Hamilton (that's him flying the Temora Hudson) also owns an airworthy Lockheed 12.

This webpage has a list of all L-12A´s and L-212´s in use with the ML-KNIL and Air Force both during and after WW2. Although a lot of details still need to be filled out, it gives a clue to the numbers in use. The list mentions seven L-12A´s transferred to Indonesia after the war of independence. It seems one of those is on Lang´s shopping list.

Hanno,

Found this picture of Dutch East Indies Lockheed 12.

Ah yes, one of you SEG flights! Great to see there´s one in the air still. The Dutch flew them extensively during WW2, operating as No.320 (Dutch) Squadron RAF.

Pic below shows Lockheed Hudson T9364 "Ypenburg" pictured on 22 February 1941 at Carew Cheriton (source). Note the orange triangle on the aircraft´s nose.

"Look to Lockheed for Leadership"
 

Lang,

This Lockheed ad seems to underpin that, as the L-212 on the left is painted in Dutch markings.

H.

Lang, I think this drawing comes from a publication by Dutch Profile. Do you know this book?

Quote from a review of this book:

I think this Life magazine view showing the interior of an aircraft factory shows a Hudson being built.

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images...c552ad_landing

Hudson
 

Certainly has that look about it with the windows in the nose.

Hanno,

I don't know the book but it looks full of good info.

The story of the one which flew to Ceylon (I mentioned this trip earlier) was very dramatic. I had a copy of a very large article - about 40 pages over 3 issues - from a flying magazine in the 70's written by one of the pilots but can't find it at present.

Lang

Lang,

I have read about this in a Dutch book on the air war over NEI, but it was not recorded in the detail you mentioned. It sounds like one of those extraordinary feats people do when in dire straits.

H.

Speaking of the RNMFS, here is the sole survivor of a batch of "The Other Twin Tail" which were bought by the NEI Government.

From airwarweb.net I learned Beech AT-11 c/n 3069 was one of 24 ordered by the Dutch for their Naval Air Services in the East Indies. Original serials were A1 to A24. After surrender of the East Indies the aircraft were confiscated by the Americans and they got fake serials by adding the fiscal year number '42' to the manufacturers' construction number. So c/n became 'serial' 42-3057 and so on. During the service the aircraft flew with these 'fake-serials'. When the aircraft were no longer needed they were passed to the USAAF where they got official serials. 44-72005 and on. In 1943 the Dutch Flying School lent a further six AT11s from the USAAF to speed up the training courses.

H.

Lang,

All I could find about this flight was that the pilot was an NCO by the name of F. Pelder. He was joined by two Australians, a New-Zealander and one Canadian. On 9 March 1942 they flew a Lockheed L2-12 with registration L-201 from Pameumpeuk, Java, to Sumatra. Via Medan and the airfield Lho-Nga near Kotaradja he left on 11 March for Colombo, a 10 hour flight. The 1,500 mile flight could only be carried out by rigging fuel barrels behind the cockpit, and transferring the fuel to the wing tanks by using a hand pump. After landing in Colombo, the aircraft was transferred to the RAF where it was registered as LV762.

The two pictures below were googled from the internet somewhere, they obviously originate from Dutch book(s).

H.

According to a 1943 recognition sheet, the Lodestar was first converted to military use in order to convey parachute troops for the Netherlands East Indies government. The Lodestars ordered by the NEI which were not yet delivered when the NEI capitulated, were taken up by the US Government. At least four of these were transferred to Canada.
Now, this newspaper clipping of the first official paratroop jump in Canada from a Lockheed Lodestar near Shilo, Manitoba (courtesy of Colin Stevens) most likely shows another Lodestar, but I like to think it was one of those Dutch Lodestar paratroop ships!

H.

A picture of CF-CPB in Alaska. Most likely also one of the ex-NEI order Lodestars.

Source

This web page lists all the Dutch Lodestars: http://www.adastron.com/lockheed/lodestar/lt9-list.htm

They had a very chequered career, serving with the Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (ML-KNIL), RAAF, USAAF, USN and various civilian operators.

Attachment 104122

Good Info Hanno

Lang