Lockheed Vega Plans

I remember hearing a long time ago that Lockheed (or I guess Lockheed-Martin or whatever they are now) had them but wouldn't let them out for liability reasons.  You might try getting  a hold of John Desmond in the Philly area, he  has a Vega project.

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In my previous job at Microsoft, we modeled a Vega Vb and Vc in Flight Simulator, and Lockheed (a partner of ours at the time) wouldn't license anything to do with the Vega, and stipulated that we had to alter the logo in the cockpit. They cited liability concerns in that case as well, which seemed a bit of a stretch.

I encountered the same mentality a number of years ago with a multinational conglomerate type aerospace manufacturer across the pond that wouldn't release old drawings for "liability reasons".   This particular problem was solved using some creative thinking... I can't share too many details but suffice to say it was an "inside job" !

The UK does have one of the best solutions I've seen to this problem, though.  British Aerospace / BAE Systems transferred technical responsibility for most of the fleet of historic deHavilland aircraft to a new organization that exists to help keep the fleet in the air.   http://www.dhsupport.com/

I am building an Altair from original Lockheed plans, and actually got Lockheed's permission to go through all of the drawings held by the FAA. It can be done, but its not easy -- and maybe I got them in a good mood.  The Smithsonian has drawings for the Detroit Lockheed DL-1, which is a metal fuselage Vega.  John Oder in Houston has a amazing collection of Lockheed drawings -- I believe mostly for the low wing models but most likely could get you going on a Vega.  He can be reached through his web site at Aeromuseaum Services.

I also have the engineering calculations used to get the airplane certificated back in 1932.  In my opinion, the Lockheeds were designed at a much higher engineering level than the other manufacturers at the time. And the airplanes are complex -- a wood workers dream.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Andrew, I've sent a letter to John Desmond, so we'll see what that brings up.

Tom, I'd really like to talk with you about your experiences getting permission to go through the FAA's drawings.  Who was your contact, etc.  Sometime if you'd like to give me a call,  all my contact information is on my website www.aerocraftsman.com.

This is the really fun part of a project, the hunt and research. Then it turns into a whole lot of work!

Mark

Mark

I will give you a call. However, there were no Vega plans in all of the boxes that I went through.

Tom

The Vega was an early stress skin plywood design by Jack Northrop. Mr. Northrop offered the design to the Loughead brothers in Santa Monica (later became Lockheed) around 1928 and they decided to build it. No idea where you can get blueprints. Possibly someone that works for Lockheed-Martin could get access to their archives but there may be liability issues. Wiley Post flew his Vega around the world and set altitude records wearing a crude pressure suit. Emilia Earhart also flew one.

Sounds like a great project. Good luck with it!

Don

Here is a Vega for you.  Might be a bit heavy...  

Lockheed told me that they don't know if they have any drawings for the single engine models.  When the company emerged from bankruptcy in 1934 and the twin engine models were coming on line there was not a lot of interest in what the previous guys had built.  Its possible that the drawings were thrown out, lost in the factory flood, or were just tossed in to boxes and stored -  but not catelogued so effectively lost.

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Mark - I don't know how much help it will be, but William Wylam did an extensive set on all of the Vegas, Sirius, etc. They are very detailed drawings, but I don't know if there will be enough data for you. Contact me off-line @ pj260@bellsouth.net if you are interested.

A little tardy but here I am.  I have about 95% of the drawings required to build a low wing such as Altair, Sirius or Orion.  I have possibly more than that percentage related to the high wings, but have not concentrated on them.  I have worked on acquiring this collection since 1969.  My long career in mechanical design enabled me to see how LAC did things and do some "gap filling" in Autocad and even Solidworks here and there.

To get an idea of volume of drawings involved, check out the 9F1 Orion ATC drawing list linked on my web page.

A very tiny portion of the low wing drawings have been scanned to pdf and uploaded to my web page.  As demand and or funding eventuates, more will be scanned and uploaded.

A little correction on JKN.  He worked for the brothers as a very young man way before the Vega in the Santa Barbara days in the teens.  The first of the Vega style fuselages was the small S1 sport biplane.  The concept and methodology of making the fuselage was patented by the brothers in 1922.  See the book Revolution In The Sky.  Jerry Vultee's 1928 fuselage building article is linked on my web page.

Wylam (and Paul Matt for that matter) was a gifted artist, but had very little clue of what a real Lockheed consisted of. A few things wrong with Wylam's drawings include wrong fuselage ring spacing, wrong fuselage ring dimensions, wrong wing rib spacing, wrong spacing between spars, showing non parallel spars, and showing flat bottom Clark Y airfoil.  His drawings are suitable for a "sort of looks like" model airplane.

My web page is at http://www.aeromuseumservices.com

John Oder

On Edit:

Here are some progress photos Tom Haueter shared with me on his DL-2A Altair from scratch he and Steve are building from my drawings:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v337/johnoder/DL2AParts/

J.O.

This would be a very good aircraft to replicate with composites. You could draw it on CAD using available drawings found in modeling books. They are very accurate.

If you decide to go that way, contact me for building techniques. I have been down that road and have lots of ways to save you from making the same mistakes I made.

Tony Pileggi