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Hired by Lockheed Aircraft Corp on 27 Oct 1936 by Marshall Headle.
(Lockheed Group Picture abt 1938-40. P-38 aircraft in background.)
(Mint Canyon Crash. If you will right click on the picture of the newspapers and scroll up to "view image" and left click
you will be able to read the articles.)
1938 Lockheed Electra Crash in Mint Canyon
(Charred Airliner found in Mint Canyon - nine killed - 5/19/38. My father was the pilot that refused to take
the aircraft up because of bad weather. He may have taken the aircraft up with no passengers, but thought it to dangerous
to do so otherwise. It was sad that someone chose not to listen to him.)
(Date / Time: Monday, May 16, 1938 / 2:07 p.m.
Operator / Flight No.: Northwest Airlines / Non-Commercial
Location: Stroh Peak, near Agua Dulce, Calif.
Details and Probable Cause: The brand-new twin-engine Lockheed L-14-H2 Super Electra airliner (NC17394) was carrying Northwest
Airlines and Lockheed Aircraft Corporation employees and family members. It took off from the Union Air Terminal (known today
as Burbank Airport) bound for Las Vegas, Nevada, where it was to be officially turned over to Northwest Airlines and then
flown on to the companys headquarters at St. Paul, Minnesota. The plane was flying in thick fog above Mint Canyon when it
crashed at 3,300 feet in the Sierra Pelona Mountains 27 minutes after taking off from Burbank. The aircraft struck a ridge,
bounded over a ravine, struck a second ridge and broke up, bursting into flames and coming to rest approximately 75 feet below
the summit of Stroh Peak. Rescuers reached the crash site at 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, May 18, but both pilots and all
seven passengers on board, including a three-year-old boy and an infant girl, had been killed instantly. It was the third
crash of an airliner to occur in the mountainous terrain north of Los Angeles in less than two years. Among the victims were
Frederick Whittemore, 42, a pilot and vice-president of operations at Northwest Airlines, and Lenna Squier, 34, the wife of
Carl B. Squier, the vice-president in charge of sales at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Squier, an aviation
pioneer and the 13th licensed pilot in the United States, was in Chicago on a business trip and Mrs. Squier was flying east
to join him.
Fatalities: 9
"I would like to add a note at this time that Sidney Willey who was the Lockheed Pilot sent by Lockheed to replace my father
on that fatefull flight was not sitting in the Pilots seat, left seat, where he should have been. He was seen by members of
the ground crew to change seats with Frederick Whittemore because Frederick was wanting to take the plane up. Frederick Whittemore
did not have the experience Contact Flying over thoes mountians the way the Lockheed Pilots did.")
(Lockheed Electra.)
(Harry Ira Downes Lockheed Test Pilot).
(Flying Test Stand 1938 (ATC 2-423) = 2pOlwM rg; 520hp Menasco U-520 Unitwin (twin 260hp Super B with
single propeller); span: 42'9" length: 28'11". Jack Wassall, W N "Wally" Wallace. Assembled from various Lockheed
components, first designated Lockheed Altair 8-G. POP: 1 [NX18149] used to test experimental Unitwin for use in planned
Starliner. Sold to Lockheed dealer Howard Batt when it was no longer needed, repowered with 450hp P&W Wasp SC under (2-423)
in 1939 and reregistered as Lockheed Altair 8-D in 1940.)
(October 8, 1939. A Lockheed Hudson crew from the Royal Air Force's No. 224 Squadron shoots down a German Do-18 flying
boat. This is the first victory recorded by an American-built aircraft in World War II.)
(Lockheed Hudson bomber.)
(Major General Oscar Westover)
(Type of aircraft in which Westover was killed)
(Major General Oscar Westover was chief of the Air Corps from December 1935 until 21 September 1938,
and was in part responsible for the beginning of a period of expansion that ended with the emergence of the U.S. Air Force
as a separate service.)
(On November 4, 1941, the tail booms of YP-38 39-689 came off during a high speed dive over Glendale, California.
Test pilot Ralph Virden was killed.)
SUMMARY OF MY EXPERIENCE
GENERAL:
During a career of twenty continuous years as an aviation pilot, I have seen much of the world and
its people. I have many times cris-crossed the United States and have been in its principal cities. , and have flown many
times across Canada and up and down the Central American Countries and throughout Western Europe and the West Indies, as well
as Central and Nothern China. These travels can be substantiated by my certified flight log books and by immigrations entries
in my passport books.
BUSINESS:
Management: As Assistant Chief Pilot for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation I selected and trained its pilots during
the companys big expansion period. I also did the scheduling of all flight activities for some sixty to seventy pilots. Also,
as chief pilot of their overseas division, I was involved in business deals and the drawing up of some contracts.
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Days Of Glory And Early Aviation Page 1
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