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Description
| Manufacturer: | Lockheed | |
| Base model: | C-23 | |
| Designation: | Y1C-23 | |
| Nickname: | Altair | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1925-1962 | |
| Basic role: | Transport | |
| Status: | Prototype | |
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Known serial numbers
Recent comments by our visitors
| John W. Oder Houston, TX | Compliments of Aero Musem Services Inc., a company founded to recreate wooden Lockheeds:
The Y1C-23 Lockheed Altair was a hybrid consisting of the successful Lockheed (Burbank, California) wooden wing and empennage in combination with Detroit Aircraft's limited production aluminum monocoque fuselage, which was in general appearance the same as the wooden fuselage used on all (with appropriate variations)single engine Lockheeds since the first Vega Model 1 of late 1927. Lockheed designated this aircraft the DL-2A, for Detroit Lockheed Model 2A. The DL-1 was a similar combination wood flight surface / aluminum fuselage Vega. The DL-2 was a aluminum fuselage Sirius 8 (with fixed landing gear). All Altairs (various Model 8 designators)and all Orions (various Model 9 designators) had one of three variations of retractable landing gear. The initial or prototype gear was installed in the Y1C-25 Altair (wood fuselage, converted Sirius 8) and used a cable lift attached to the front of the MLG fork. The intermediate production gear used a similar set up but with cable lift situated at inboard end of main wheel axles. This intermediate production gear was assisted by a pair of hydraulic cylinders, one at front starboard end of front spar working the lifting cables and a shorter cylinder centrally located on front face of rear spar to work the pair of slides that moved the upper ends of the inboard diagonal struts OUTBOARD during retraction. These cylinders were actuated by a hand pump in the pilot's cockpit. Most of the Altairs and Orions were originally fitted with this intermediate production gear. The last few retract gear ships, starting with Orion C/N 208, were fitted with the late production gear which had incorporated vastly better oleo struts and mounting system. The intermediate gear used a short vertical oleo strut mounted on rear face of front spar with a simple tubular truss between spars for stiffening the area. This strut had but 2 1/2" of stroke, resulting is approximately 3 1/2" of travel at the wheel contact area. The late production gear used a six inch stroke Cleveland Pneumatic "aerol" strut mounted laying down at an angle in a robust fabricated box type truss assembly fastened to front and rear spars. A fair number of the retract gear ships, including Altair "Lady Southern Cross" (the starboard MLG of which resides in the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, AU) and Orion 9C special (currently in Swiss Transport Museum) were converted to the late production gear. John Oder President, Aero Museum Services Inc. Houston 01/24/2002 @ 15:10 [ref: 4177] |
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