Lockheed L-188 Electra

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Lockheed Electra L188C of Atlantic Airlines, at Cardiff Airport, Wales.

1 History
2 Military use
3 The Kiwanis Electra Memorial
4 Electra Operators today
5 Specifications
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

The Lockheed L-188 Electra first flew in 1957, and was the first turboprop airliner built in the USA. It delivered performance only slightly inferior to that of a full jet aircraft, at a lower operating cost.

On September 29, 1959, a Braniff Electra which was en route from Houston to Dallas mysteriously broke up in flight over Buffalo, Texas. All 28 passengers and six crew members were killed.

Just under six months later, on March 17, 1960, an Electra operated by Northwest Orient, en route from Chicago to Miami, Florida, broke apart in flight over Perry County, Indiana, crashing in a farm field eight miles east of Cannelton. All 63 people on board were killed (57 passengers and six crew members).

NASA and Lockheed engineers eventually determined that the engine mounts allowed too much fore and aft movement of the propellers ("propeller whirl"), which created an aeroelastic phenomenon called "flutter" in flight. This flutter, by pure chance, occurred at the wings' natural resonant frequency, setting up a negatively damped harmonic oscillation that eventually led to separation of a wing from the fuselage. The engine mounts were redesigned and the problem was solved by 1961.

On October 4, 1960 Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 crashed on takeoff from Boston, Massachusetts's Logan International Airport, killing 62 of 72 on board. The crash was eventually determined to be the result of bird ingestion in three engines rather than structural failure.

Almost every airline in the US flew Electras, but the only European airline to order the type was KLM; Britain's airlines used the Vickers Viscount. In the South Pacific, TEAL flew the Electra, NAC the Viscount, Air New Zealand flew both. In Australia TAA and Ansett operated Electra on routes between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and to Port Moresby from 1959 until 1971. American Airlines was the launch customer, followed by Eastern Airlines and Braniff Airways.

On May 3, 1968, a Braniff Electra, Flight 352, which was en route from Houston to Dallas, exploded over Dawson, Texas. All 80 passengers and five crew members were killed. This was the worst air disaster in Texas at the time. The crash was originally blamed on the pilot and weather, although this has since been challenged based on surfaced documents and the recovery of key evidence.

The Electras flew in commercial service until the mid-1970s. Some units were sold to Brazilian airline Varig, operated with a perfect safety record until 1992 on the Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo Shuttle service before being sold to Zaire. Others were retired into air cargo use. A total of 144 L-188s were built, 57 of which have been destroyed in accidents, according to the Aviation Safety Network [1]. The most recent Electra accident was in July 2003.

[edit] Military use

Lockheed developed a variant of the Electra, the P-3 Orion, for the United States Navy. The Orion was originally developed using modified civilian Electra airframes, but the final production P-3s were built separately. It has a similar overall design to the Electra with a number of radical differences, most notably the "stinger" magnetic anomaly detector which protrudes from the tail. [2]

In 1983, after the retirement of their last SP-2H Neptunes the Argentine Navy modified several civilian Electras for maritime patrol (including one locally known as L-188W Electron for electronic warfare actually preserved at the Argentine Naval Aviation Museum (MUAN) at Bahia Blanca) and widely used them until their replacement by P-3s in 1994.

[edit] The Kiwanis Electra Memorial

The citizens of Perry County and the Cannelton Kiwanis Club raised funds for a memorial at the site of the 1960 crash. Dedicated in 1961, the Kiwanis Electra Memorial marks the site of Indiana's worst air crash. It is located on Millstone Road, which may be reached via Indiana highways 66 and 166, eight miles east of Cannelton, Indiana.

Cannelton newspaper editor and civic booster Bob Cummings wrote the words which are inscribed on the memorial along with the names and symbols of the religious faiths of those who died aboard the plane. The inscription reads: "This memorial, dedicated to the memory of 63 persons who died in an airplane crash at this location, March 17, 1960, was erected by public subscription in the hope that such tragedies will be eliminated."

[edit] Electra Operators today

Atlantic Airlines, Coventry, United Kingdom, 8 L-188
Amerer Air, Linz, Austria, had two L-188 but it recently ceased operating. The aircraft were sold to Buffalo Airways, Canada.
Buffalo Airways of Yellowknife owns and operates 2 L-188.
As of August 2006 a total of 15 Lockheed L-188 Electra aircraft (all variants) were reported in airline service, with Trans Service Airlift (1), Amerer Air (2), Atlantic Airlines (10), Segers Aviation (1) and Bigojet (1).^[1]

[edit] Specifications

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Passengers: 99 to 127
Powerplants: Four Allison 501 turboprop engines, rated for 3,750 hp (2,800 kW)
Cruise speed: 390 mph (620 km/h)
Ceiling: 28,400 ft (9,500 m)
Range: 2,200 mi (3,500 km)