iscover
Ansett's first Electra, appropriately registered Reginald Miles Ansett, prepares to depart Lockheed's Burbank facility. The Electras generally were not that much slower over the 400nm trunk legs of the eastern seaboard than are the present day jets.
The Lockheed L188 Electra In Australian Service
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The Lockheed L188 Electra
Part Twenty-five In A Series Examining The Airliners That Established Civil Aviation In Australia
According to Greek legend, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra was Electra, a name which translates into English as ‘the bright one’.
Lockheed following a tradition established with the Vega in 1926 principally named their aircraft after stars, planets, or other astronomical bodies. The original Lockheed 1 0 Electra of 1934 was named after E lectra, the mythological lost Pleiad in a c conspicuous loose cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus. When Lockheed embarked on a major new airliner project in the 1950s they thought it appropriate t o rekindle the name for the new aircraft. However, the brightness of the name Electra in ancient terms was not to be echoed by this new airliner, through events that occurred quite early in its career.
During 1953 Capital Airlines was contemplating the purchase of turbine-powered aircraft to replace existing equipment. They were attracted to the Viscount and decided to approach Lockheed to see if they were interested in producing an airliner similar in size to the Viscount. Lockheed put out feelers to other airlines but the lack of enthusiasm prompted them to proceed no further with the idea. Vickers were to benefit from this decision and Capital subsequently placed large orders for Viscounts. The following year, American Airlines issued a preliminary specification for a short/medium haul airliner to augment the big jets that it would acquire later that decade.
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