LOCKHEED VEGA Model 5 NC194E

TEXAS FINALE

This airplane is a Lockheed Vega Model 5 (S/N 25; ATC #93) manufactured in December 1928 by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, CA.  It left the factory with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp CB engine (S/N 971) of unspecified HP.  It was a five-place airplane.

It sold on March 1, 1929 to the Schlee-Brock Aircraft Corporation, Detroit, MI.  It was equipped with Edo floats and flown on the routes of Arrowhead International Airlines, a Schlee-Brock subsidiary operating for a short time out of Duluth, MN.

We find NC194E at Tucson on 5/6/1929 flown by Herbert J. "Hub" Fahy. He was carrying four passengers, his wife Claire Fahy, W.C. Collins and Mr. & Mrs. Ben S. Hunter. They were westbound from El Paso, TX to Los Angeles, CA. There was no purpose associated with the trip noted in the Register, although pilot Fahy did note in the Remarks column "Tailwind" (unusual for that direction of flight).

We next see NC194E landing at Tucson on February 5, 1930 flown by Don Walker carrying passenger George Sherwood.  Based in Detroit, they are eastbound from Los Angeles, CA to El Paso, TX.  This may be a ferry flight for Schlee-Brock, because NC195E was sold on February 11, 1930 to G.W. Mennis of the Texas Worth Tool Company, Fort Worth, TX.  Walker and Sherwood could very well have flown to California, then dropped the airplane off in Fort Worth on the way back east.

Alas, we lose this airplane on April 27, 1930.  It suffered an accident at Alvord, TX.  Pilot James H. Kelly (one-time endurance flight record holder; did not sign the Register) along with Mennis and another passenger were killed.  Another passenger was seriously injured.  The airplane was demolished and only the engine was salvaged.

UPLOADED: 04/11/06 REVISED: 07/18/06