LOCKHEED L188 ELECTRA

LOCKHEED L188 AN INTRODUCTION

In the next few months, Utopia Airport will try to present you the operations of the L188 of the original customers of the Lockheed L188,

If the Comet is  England Greek tragedy , the L188 was America's Waterloo. By the mid-fifties, air travel was changing at a extremely rapid pace. the technological advances brought by the war brought new aircraft capable of  crossing the Atlantic and linking  the East and the West coast of the USA non-stop. By the end of the decade,  air transport will be completely revolutionized by the arrival of the jets. 
If by the mid-fifties the USA had a virtual monopoly on the production  of civil airliners , this position was beginning to be eroded : France with its Caravelle ,

Caravelle III photo by Ian Grafton/wikimedia commpns/GFDL 1.2 License

 Fokker with its DC3 replacement the F27, 

Aer Lingus EI-AKA F.27 Photo by Ken Feilding/Flickr

and the British with the hugely successful first ever turboprop the Vickers Viscount. 

Vickers Viscount prototype. RUTHAS/wikimedia commons. CC-BY-3.0 license

The vickers Viscount was  hugely successful  among the flying public of Capital Airlines, was giving cold sweats for Eastern and American. The airlines expressed demands  to Lockheed to provide for a plane to fly both multi-stop short hops  and even long hops when required in a fast,modern,economically and efficient manner.

LOCKHEED responded with the Electra as a low wing 4 turboprop engine . The prototype made its maiden flight on Dec 6, 1957 . The cabin came in 3 different versions : 66 pax /38 inch/4 abreast  , 85 pax /38 inch/5 abreast and   on both versions a 6-seat pax lounge at the rear of the aircraft . Since a seat track arrangement was available , any operator could reconfigure the interior up to 99 passengers. The L188 possessed some features that helped minimize the plane's turn-around time at airports : Integral pax stairs, due to its system minimized the need for external ground equipment, minimum ramp congestion by having embarkation function on the left side and servicing function on the right

Certification was received on 22/8/1958 and delivery  to Eastern Airlines on Oct 8, 1958 (msn 1007)
Orders

American Airlines  made its first order on June 8 1955 for 35 frames 


By Jon Proctor - Gallery page http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5877645 Photo http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/1/1/3/8/98389_1165958831.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31480689

followed by Eastern  on Sept 29 for 40 frames



By Jon Proctor - Gallery page http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6986489 Photo http://images2.jetphotos.net/img/1/8/3/4/40636_1289617438.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31452057

National Airlines ordered 14 L188A



By Jon Proctor - Gallery page http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6986494 Photo http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/2/9/3/8/32779_1289679839.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31449662

 Braniff ordered 9 :




By Jon Proctor - Gallery page http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6982155 Photo http://images2.jetphotos.net/img/1/9/3/2/62637_1289312239.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31456166


Northwest Orient Airlines ordered 18 L188C



By Ken Fielding/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32293691



Western Airlines ordered 12



By Ken Fielding/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32293561

PSA ordered 3



By Jon Proctor - Gallery page http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5949023 Photo http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/2/6/5/6/90476_1202869656.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31469702


American  Flyers Services got one frame from the canceled order of Capital Airlines



By Jon Proctor - Gallery page http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7374265 Photo http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/4/9/7/6/79650_1336873679.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31444845


Ansett ordered 3 aircraft (3 L188A)






Qantas ordered 4 L188C






TAA ordered 3 L188A



By RuthAS - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26550242


TEAL ordered 3L188C



By RuthAS - Ownwork, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41391156

KLM ordered 12 L188C and were named after stars and planets , please read 

KLM , the L188 , and and their Names 



By Ken Fielding/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32293562

GARUDA 3 L188C

General Motors ordered one L188A

The aircraft was the faster propeller airliner of its time The crash of 2 Electras on  29/9/59 (BRANIFF) and on 17/3/60 (NORTHWEST)  caused by whirl mode flutter . To prevent the occurrence of such event  , Lockheed made wing structure changes and strengthened the nacelle structure itself . the LEAP ( Lockheed Electra Action Program) was the most extensive maintenance program performed on an airliner of which 135 had been delivered out of 170 frames ordered . The FAA re-certified the L188 on  30/12/1960

Lockheed emerged with more than a $50  million loss on this program. The negative publicity of the crashes and the arrival of the jet put an early end to the program . The aircraft got a second lease of life as a cargo flyer and equipping many airlines mainly in Latin American and Europe.

MOST POPULAR USERS OF THE SECOND-HAND L188

Air California

By Richard Silagi - http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-California/Lockheed-L-188A-Electra/1286423/L/, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22600822

Atlantic Airlines


By No machine-readable author provided. Arpingstone assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1175615

COPA Airlines

By Christian Volpati - http://www.airlinefan.com/airline-photos/1193940/COPA-Panama---Copa-Airlines/Lockheed/L-188-Electra/HP-579/, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20568421

 Fred Olsen 


By Ken Fielding/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32293685

Lineas Aereas Paraguayas 


By Pedro Aragão - Gallery page http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=21284 Photo http://images2.jetphotos.net/img/2/5/2/9/94646_1042503925.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29027098

Mandala Airlines


By John Wheatley - http://www.myaviation.net/search/photo_search.php?id=00463040&size=large, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17463141

NWT Air

Reeve Aleutian Airlines



By Piergiuliano Chesi, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12428375

SAHSA  


By RuthAS - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26729092

 TAME


By AlainDurand - Gallery page http://www.airliners.net/photo/Ecuador---TAME/Lockheed-L-188A-Electra/0747427/L Photo http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/7/2/4/0747427.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27353271

TAN  Airlines


By Christian Volpati - http://www.airlinefan.com/airline-photos/1044052/TAN-Airlines/Lockheed/L-188-Electra/HR-TNL/, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22677636

VARIG


By Pedro Aragão - Gallery page http://www.airliners.net/photo/Varig/Lockheed-L-188A-Electra/0495339/L Photo http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/9/3/3/0495339.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26980289

ZANTOP


By John Davies - CYOW Airport Watch - Gallery page http://www.airliners.net/photo/Zantop-International-Airlines/Lockheed-L-188A%28F%29-Electra/0619908/L Photo http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/8/0/9/0619908.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27095803