Lockheed Electra L188-C
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CLICK HERE TO VIEW >>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeEfcL17xlU
THIS IS ONE OF THREE RECENT YouTube VIDEOS
ALL VIDEOS ARE BEST VIEWED IN FULLSCREEN MODE
Published on 19 Mar 2015
Film from the Lockheed Archives. Another Electra promo film, this one showcases many of the aircraft's features, including internal systems, power plants, etc. Neat scenes around Burbank Airport, and test flying as well. One of the better airliner promo films.
Published on 19 Mar 2015
Film from the Lockheed Archives. Another neat Electra promo, this one focuses on the Allison 501-D13 turboprop power plant. Great scenes of early C-130s with blunt noses and three bladed props, plus VERY RARE footage of the Turbo Connie Conversions.
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Click this link for one Flight Engineer's detailed perspective of our Lockheed L188C Electra era
CLICK HIGHLIHTED LINK BELOW TO VIEW
On page 23.... Note the Flight Engineer's pay scale back in 1964
CLICK HERE TO VIEW GARY SOMMERVILLE'S TRIBUTE TO OUR Lockheed ELECTRA L188C ERA
THIS VIDEO IS BEST VIEWED IN FULLSCREEN MODE
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T.E.A.L. LOCKHEED
ELECTRA L-188C CREW ROSTER 3RD SEPTEMBER 1962 – 9TH
SEPTEMBER 1962.
The departure times shown on the rosters are given as LST (Local Standard Time). Note on the bottom of the last page the crew operates Nandi-Pago-Papeete in one day, and then the following day operates Papeete-Pago-Nandi. The first sector Nandi/Pago is dated Mon 3rd departing at 3.30 a.m. LST. The next sector Pago/Papeete departs Pago at 7.45 a.m. LST and is dated the day before i.e. Sun 2nd. This is bought about by crossing the International Date Line between Fiji and Samoa and re-entering yesterday. The next day after an over-night stay in Tahiti, the crew operates Papeete/Pago on Mon 3rd, departing Papeete at 7.00 a.m. LST. The second sector on Mon 3rd is Pago/Nandi, departing at 11.00 a.m. LST. The arrival time/date at Nandi is not given on this roster but the aircraft will have flown into tomorrow, Tuesday 4th. Additionally the local times between airports will be adjusted by crossing Time Zones making the day shorter flying eastwards (towards Papeete – Tahiti) and longer flying westwards towards Fiji (Nandi). In the Electra days when LST was used on rosters it caused some confusion, so rosters which followed in the jet era where the Company went much further afield and the potential for confusion was greater, all rosters were predicated around GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) which is the time base for all aircraft operations, of all Airlines all around the world, and the same time base is used by all Air Traffic Control systems worldwide.
Names listed on this roster in the
order they appear.
Ian Gemmell
Eddie Tredrea
Cliff Le Couteur
Pat McFarland
‘Buck’ Buchanan
Don McLachlan
Ian ‘Destry’ Russell
Nevill ‘Nobby’ Clarke
Gordon Vette
Sam Corbett
Harold Thompson
Barney Wyatt
Geoff White
Co-Pilots:
Peter Grundy
John Harrison
Dave Aarons
Alan Potts
Jack Priest
Garth Owen
Geoff Roud
Ron McKenzie
Arthur ‘Spike’ Jones
Roger Dalziell
Les Simpson
Ross Gordon
Jim Collins
Navigators:
Joe McVicar
Ron Wilson-Walker
‘Tommy’ Tompkins
Alan Partridge
Jim Douglas
Lindsay Caudwell. s/n
William G Melville
Jim Kennedy
Ross Gordon. s/n
Arthur Pugh
Peter Heares
Cam Patterson
Brian Hewitt
Jim Mair
Tom Hugill
John Foster
s/n = Supernumerary
i.e. under training.
Flight Engineers:
Mike Hewett
Ken Abbott
Neville Hay
Derek Stubbs
Geoff Freer
Ron Oliver
Dave Blackwood
Ian Diamond
Gordon Tonkin
Ray Poole
Jack King
Nick Caulton
Ron Tunney
Bill Freeman
‘Bert’ Jamieson
Stewards:
Dave Taylor
W. Appleton
Ron Hayes
Tommy Blythen
Jackie Finch
Keith Nathan (Whaka)
Brian Gillham
Don Robertson
Mathew Miller
Graeme Durston
Ron Ingledew
Vic Stone
Bob Chidwick
Jackie Martin
Dennis Perham
Laurie Willetts
Peter Hill
Stewards:
Don Jolly
Charlie Eglinton
Stan Mabus
J. Macintyre
Keith Baker
Dave Brideson
Johnny Price
Ron Buckman
A. ‘Rory’ Doyle
Mike Findlay
Tony Brice
Eddie Arkle
D. Herring
M. Morris
Peter Aldridge
Brian Remi
J. Kelly
Stewards:
Ken ‘Granny’ Mathews
Kevin Donovan
Pat Tarr
Dennis O’Dwyer
Frank Collier
John Hamling
R. Brown
G. Lilley
D. Elliot
John Van de Gouw
Don MacKay
Hostesses:
Kathy Brown
Barbara Sisson
Erin Tipping
Joan Findlay
Val Vincent
Diana Dick
Alyson Chester
Dennyse Jowitt
Sylvia Robinson
Ann Slavin
Gail? Petersen
Sue Carlson
Valda Watson
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What became of Air New Zealand's Lockheed Electra L188-C's
Click on this link.....
CLICK HERE>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_F1C2WN_fE
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Lockheed L188-C Electra Videos
Ex T.E.A.L. ZK-CLX. Lockheed L188-C Electra
Reeve Aleutian N1968R.
Anchorage to Dutch Harbour.
16 July 1997. 1:03:44 min/sec
For those with
an interest in the Lockheed L188-C Electra, this is a video which appeared on
YouTube in late 2014.
T.E.AL./Air New
Zealand operated Electras from 1959 to 1972.
Since 1966 the
R.N.Z.A.F. have operated a variant of the Electra, a fleet of 6 Lockheed P3
Orions.
There has been a
scarcity of Electra films and/or videos available on the Web due to the Electra
era being before the digital age, i.e. digital cameras, digital video cameras,
the Internet and even Television.
Older analogue
films now have to be re-processed by interested parties to convert to digital
form and this is just beginning to happen, 50 plus years after the Electra
first flew.
This new 1997
video is unique in that it was filmed in the digital age, and is a welcome
arrival, and was only possible because ZK-CLX continued to fly well into the
digital age.
It is significant that much of the software of the Electra era,
human flesh and tissue, those fine colleagues of ours may have gone but the
hardware carries on flying, just as
youthful as the day it was born.
In this
video: what is of special interest to us is that the aircraft depicted is ex-
T.E.AL./Air New Zealand L188-C Lockheed Electra ZK-CLX.
When TEAL wrote off ZK-TEC in a flight
training exercise at Whenuapai in March 1965, QANTAS sold TEAL a
replacement Lockheed L188C Electra, VH-ECC, to plug the gap in their fleet.
This became ZK-CLX.
Many of us will
have done a walk-around check on this aircraft, and operated it over our
network during its T.E.AL./Air New Zealand tenure from 1965 to 1968.
My personal special
memory of ZK-CLX is that it was the first aircraft I operated after check-out
as a fully-fledged Flight Engineer on 26 August 1965.
After service
with T.E.A.L. / Air New Zealand, ZK-CLX went to Reeve Aleutian Airways Alaska
where it remained in service for a further 33 years, operating on the American
register as N1968R. (ZK-TEB msn2010 also went to Reeve and flew with them for
33 years as N178RV).
As you will see
in the film the Electra was well suited to the climatic conditions and short
almost inaccessible runways scattered around the Aleutian Islands.
In fact at
times it was the only aircraft that could handle the conditions, aided in no
small measure by the instant lift created by firewalling if necessary, four
giant 14 foot diameter paddle bladed propellers.
The video starts
on the tarmac at Anchorage Alaska and operates the sector Anchorage to Dutch
Harbour.
It is a lengthy
film of just over an hour but many of us will recall sitting in those very
seats, handling those controls, operating those switches, buttons, levers etc.
The Electra introduced us to many new innovations and some of the funny little
things that come to mind were ‘Teeter-Totter’ switches, engines which operated
throughout the flight envelope at constant R.P.M --- and of course, the ‘TD
Null Valve’!
Another video is automatically offered at the
end of this video showing the return leg.
If you wish to view it later, here is the
link,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5rlYyy1Mz8
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ZK-CLX –
N1968R was almost lost on 8th June 1983
Enroute
from Cold Bay Alaska to Seattle
Washington the N°4 propeller and reduction gearbox separated from the wing in
flight.
Enroute the crew noticed an unusual vibration while climbing from 19,000
feet to 25,000 feet. The flight engineer went aft to inspect the engines and
propellers but noted nothing unusual. A flight attendant went forward to report
to the Captain that nothing unusual had been observed, when the vibration
increased in intensity.+
As the flight attendant left the flight deck she looked out the right hand
window and saw N°4 propeller separate and strike the fuselage.
This caused a
rapid cabin decompression which resulted in partial collapse of the cabin
floor, jamming some engine and flight control cables.
The flight attendant could see the ocean through the gash in the passenger
cabin floor.
The crew began an emergency descent but found that control was difficult
and they could not reduce engine power from the cruise setting.
After much
experimentation the crew established the Auto pilot could provide minimal
flight control and lowering and retracting the undercarriage with N°2 engine
shutdown enabled them to descend and climb the aircraft.
Despite these difficulties which initially indicated a ditching in the sea,
the crew managed to divert to Anchorage some hours later.
The aircraft departed the runway at slow speed, partially entering a ditch.
The aircraft remained on its undercarriage and further damage was limited to
that caused by brake fires.
Aircraft was subsequently repaired and returned to
service.
On-sold to Air Spray Tankers Alberta Canada on 28th
April 2001. Stored then converted to a firebomber tanker at Chico Municipal
Airport California by Aero Union in April 2004.
Re-registered on the Canadian
register as C-GHZI, it is still flying today in 2015.
This video
arrived on YouTube in 2015 and shows N1968R landing following the N°4 propeller
loss incident.
8th June
1983. Anchorage Alaska.
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Copied from ‘The
Lockheed File’
VH-ECC "Pacific
Endeavour"
Type: L-188C Electra
Msn: 2007
Subsequent Identities:
Msn: 2007
Subsequent Identities:
·
ZK-CLX
·
N1968R
·
C-GHZI (Tanker 484)
VH-ECC N1968R
C-GHZI
History:
01APR58
|
Ordered by Qantas
|
|
10AUG59
|
Application for C of R and C of A by Qantas
Empire Airways Ltd. (Note:1)
|
|
19NOV59
|
First flight
|
|
23NOV59
|
Accepted by Qantas at Burbank
|
|
24NOV59
|
C of R 3278 and C of A 3278 issued to
Qantas as VH-ECC (Note:1)
|
|
28NOV59
|
Arrived Sydney on delivery as "Pacific
Endeavour" (Capt.
K. Nicholson)
|
|
08NOV60
|
T.T. 1900.42 hours (Note:1)
|
|
25JAN61
|
Due to depart for Lockheed, Burbank for
wing and engine mount modifications
|
|
31JAN61
|
Entered LEAP as
LEAP #73 QEA-3
|
|
27FEB61
|
Completed LEAP
|
|
03OCT61
|
Operated inaugural service Sydney to
Wellington (Capt. J.S. Ross
|
|
04OCT61
|
Operated inaugural service Sydney to
Auckland (Capt. J.S. Ross
|
|
07OCT61
|
Operated inaugural service Auckland to
Melbourne (Capt. F.S. Furniss)
|
|
31OCT61
|
T.T. 4018.35 hours (Note:1)
|
|
18OCT62
|
T.T. 5523.36 hours (Note:1)
|
|
01NOV63
|
T.T. 7238.38 hours (Note:1)
|
|
26OCT64
|
T.T. 9355.46 hours (Note:1)
|
|
15APR65
|
The New Zealand Minister for Civil Aviation
announced that Air New Zealand would purchase an Electra from Qantas to
replace the crashed ZK-TEC. (Source: Australian Air Log Vol. 1 No 4, April
1965, p.33)
|
|
17APR65
|
Operated its last Qantas service
|
|
18APR65
|
Cancelled from Australian register. Change
of ownership to Air New Zealand as ZK-CLX. Departed for Auckland all on the
same date. Departed Sydney on
its first commercial service for Air NZ as ZK-CLX in full Qantas livery but
with the Australian flag and registration removed. (Source: Australian Air
Log Vol. 1 No 4, April 1965,p.33)
|
|
28APR65
|
Noted at Sydney with the name Qantas
painted out. (Source: Australian Air Log Vol. 1 No 4, April 1965, p.33)
|
|
10MAY65
|
Noted at Sydney still in Qantas colours but
with Air New Zealand titles.
(Source: Australian Air Log Vol. 1 No 5, May 1965, p.49) |
|
Re-named "Akaroa"
|
||
16FEB68
|
Sold to California Airmotive Corp as N1968R
|
|
22FEB68
|
Sold to Reeve Aleutian Airways Inc.
Anchorage, Alaska as N1968R
|
|
08JUN83
|
Enroute Anchorage to Cold Bay, the crew
noticed an unusual vibration while climbing from FL190 to FL250. The flight
engineer went aft to inspect the engines and propellers but noted nothing
unusual. A flight attendant went forward to report to the captain that
nothing unusual had been observed, when the vibration increased in intensity.
As the flight attendant left the flight deck, she looked out the right hand
window and saw the number 4 propeller separate, striking the fuselage. This
caused a rapid decompression which resulted in a partial collapse of the
cabin floor, jamming some control cables. The crew began an emergency descent
but found that control was difficult and that they could not reduce power
from cruise setting. The autopilot provided minimal control while lowering
and retracting the undercarriage with the number 2 engine shut down enabled
the crew to descend and climb. Despite these difficulties, which initially
indicated a ditching, the crew managed to return to Anchorage. On their
second approach, the aircraft touched down nose wheel first at high speed and
the crew shut down the remaining two engines which deprived them of hydraulic
braking and nose wheel steering. The aircraft departed the runway at slow
speed, partially entering a ditch. The aircraft remained on its undercarriage
and further damage was limited to that caused by main gear brake fires which
were extinguished by the fire services before spreading. The reason for the
propeller separation could not be determined as the propeller had fallen into
the ocean.
[Extracted from NTSB Report DCA83AA029] The aircraft was subsequently repaired and returned to service. |
|
JAN01
|
Following the bankruptcy of Reeve Aleutian,
N1968R was acquired by AIRSPRAY (Canada) for conversion to a fire bombing
tanker. N1968R had served
Reeve Aleutian for 33 years!
|
|
12JUN01
|
Registered C-GHZI to AIRSPRAY 1967 Ltd.,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The aircraft is marketed by AIRSPRAY as a
"Long Liner", a name derived from its ability to drop a long line
of retardant.
|
|
28DEC04
|
Report that C-GHZI Tanker 84 has completed
its first season as a tanker.
|
|
27 MAY 2010
|
Michael Hogan, an Electra captain with AIRSPRAY,
advises that C-GHZI is now marked as Tanker 484. Although originally marked
as T-84, the proliferation of tankers made it necessary to carry the full
three digit call-sign on the aircraft. The aircraft operates as "AIRSPRAY
484".
|
|
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WHIRL MODE
Early in the Electra’s history two
aircraft were lost to inflight break up, which was later proven to be caused by
a phenomenon called ‘WHIRL MODE’.
A third broke apart in March 1960 killing all on board.
History
of the Prop-Whirl-Flutter Phenomenon.
Source: Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology
Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis.
The Lockheed L188 Electra utilized four wing mounted Allison 501 turbo-prop
engines. The first flight for the Electra was in December of 1957. The
potential for the aircraft looked good.
However, on September 29th 1959 a Braniff Airways Electra
disintegrated in-flight near Buffalo, Texas, losing the entire left wing.
A nearly identical incident occurred only a few months later, on March 17,
1960.
The second crash involved a Northwest Orient Airlines Electra that lost
its entire right wing, crashing near Tell City, Indiana.
All crew and
passengers were lost in both incidents, and the Electra fleet was grounded
pending investigations.
The FAA, Lockheed, and Allison Gas Turbine Division of General Motors all
participated in the investigation.
The official FAA reports now describe the
cause of the first accident as: “Structural failure of the LEFT wing resulting from forces generated by un-dampened propeller
whirl mode.”
The second crash cause is given as “In-flight separation of the RIGHT wing because of flutter induced
oscillation of the outboard nacelle.”
Accident investigators in Texas found evidence that the outboard nacelle on
the failed wing had swung as much as 35 degrees out of alignment.
Lockheed had
designed the nacelle to break away in the event of large unbalances such as a
propeller blade loss, and this had not occurred. Rather, the entire wing had
separated from the fuselage while the nacelle remained attached to the wing.
Wing overload did not seem a likely cause, because such a structural
weakness would have turned up during Lockheed’s extensive structural testing,
or in the thousands of flight hours that Braniff, Northwest, and Eastern
Airlines had seen on the Electras in their fleets.
Prior to this time, no one had ever considered that an engine/propeller
system whirling mode could couple with a flutter mode of a structural airfoil
such as a wing.
However, with other explanations seeming even less probable,
the investigation turned toward this possibility.
Peter Garrison describes the investigation, saying “Lockheed’s flutter
analysts reprogrammed their computer to include whirl mode, and the mechanism
of the accidents began to emerge.
By an unlucky coincidence, the whirl mode
frequency of the Electra’s big four bladed propellers happened to match the
flapping frequency of the wing.
The propellers, like the child driving a swing ever higher by small
movements of their body, had eventually caused the wing to flap so violently
that in 30 seconds it broke at the root, without the propeller whirl ever
overloading the nacelle structure.
This phenomenon became known as prop-whirl-flutter.
It was deduced that damage to one of the engine’s four mounts had caused a
reduction in the stiffness of the engine/prop system, thus lowering the whirl
mode until it was coincident with the wing’s flutter mode, precipitating the
ever increasing excitation of the wing mode, and ultimately causing the wing
failure.
Eventually, not only did analysis prove the cause to be prop-whirl flutter,
but full-scale testing of a Lockheed Electra with reduced stiffness engine
mounts demonstrated the phenomenon in a wind tunnel.
Lockheed eventually
redesigned the mount system for the Electra to ensure that reduced stiffness
could not cause the whirl mode of the engine/prop to fall into this situation again.
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This video, a 1960 NASA Langley Research Centre Film conducted
at the NASA Langley Research Center's 16-Foot Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, and uploaded to
YouTube on April 6th 2011 shows wind tunnel testing and demonstration of Whirl
Mode. The video is just under 9 minutes long. The actual whirl mode occurrence
is at the end of the film at 8:14 to 8:58 minutes. There is no sound track with
this video.
A 3:30 minute video titled ‘Double Gyroscope-Precession’
follows automatically. Very interesting!
For a second
video in the same Whirl Mode series use this link. 33:41 mins
To fix the problem a Lockheed repair program L.E.A.P. was established and
implemented.
The L.E.A.P. Program.
Not long after the Electra entered service, there were three crashes, two
of which involved wing separation (the other was attributed to pilot error).
As
a result, performance restrictions were imposed and Lockheed instigated a
modification program which came to be known as LEAP.
Several references decode
the acronym as "Lockheed Electra Achievement Program" but Lockheed
sources state that the correct title is "Lockheed Electra Action
Program".
The following account of
LEAP is extracted from "Beyond the Horizons - The Lockheed Story"
by Walter J. Boyne (St. Martin's Press, New York 1998):
Investigation revealed that under certain conditions of engine nacelle or
power-plant damage, a phenomenon known as 'whirl mode' could occur.
'Whirl mode' refers to the results of the application of a force to
gyroscopic characteristics of a rotating propeller.
When such a force is
applied, precession occurs; that is, like a gyroscope, the propeller reacts
ninety degrees out of phase to the applied force.
This causes the structural
resistance of the engine mounting system to apply a nose-down pitching moment.
This forces the propeller disc (as viewed from the rear) to turn to the left due
to precession. This in turn causes a nose-down propeller disc yawing to the
right, which causes a nose-up pitch, completing the cycle.
This combination of effects is termed the 'whirl mode', and its direction
of rotation is opposite to that of the propeller.
In a normal aircraft, the
whirl mode could operate only within the limits of the flexibility of the
engine mounts. If, however, some structural element of the power plant, the
power-plant mounting system, or the nacelle was in a damaged or weakened
condition, the whirl mode would not damp out, but could become more violent,
increasing damage to the structure, and could approach the natural frequency of
the wing.
This would perpetuate the whirl mode in a form of induced flutter and
lead to catastrophic failure.
John Margwarth, another University of Michigan man, was director of safety
for Lockheed, and it was his insight that led to an investigation revealing
that the Electra's fatal flaw was in the three member structure connecting the
gearbox and the engine, a part supplied by the engine manufacturers.
When one
member of that structure failed, the engine mount became flexible.
On an
outboard engine, at the Electra's original cruise speed, failure of the strut
induced immediate, violent flutter that tore the wing off.
Technically, Lockheed could have passed the problem off to the engine
manufacturer, disclaiming responsibility. Instead, it redesigned the wing
structure so that it would not flutter when such a failure occurred. (Allison
also redesigned the strut so that it would not fail.)
Additional mounts were
added to stabilize the propeller in the event that any mount failed, or if
breakage occurred between the gearbox and the power section. The nacelle
structure was also strengthened by the addition of reinforcements and diagonal
braces.
Lockheed was rocked by the three crashes and their adverse publicity.
For
weeks there was one meeting after another to handle the latest problem. It was
soon evident that engineering the wing modification was not going to be as
difficult as finding a way to pay for it.
Carl Kotchian recalled coming out of
a meeting with Robert Gross, the latter sunk deep in thought. (Gross had been
under considerable strain for some time; he would die less than two years
later.)
In the garage, Gross asked, 'How much do you think the modification is
going to cost?' Kotchian hesitated and said, 'Well, I think it's going to cost
maybe $25 million.' Gross turned white, then replied, 'Well, we've got to do
it.'
And Lockheed did, instituting the Lockheed Electra Action Program (LEAP)
and modifying all Electras at its own expense, whether they were within
warranty or not. The LEAP program came in just under Kotchian's $25 million
estimate. n
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These
links arrived on YouTube in 2014 and are 3 Lockheed Company Electra Promotion
films.
Electra.
Lockheed L-188A Electra Promo
Film #1 - 1958 Propulsion Story. 24:36 min/sec
Electra.
Lockheed L-188A Electra Promo
Film #2 – 1958. 32:36 min/sec
Systems
description and Maintenance procedures. (a refresher course for F/E’s).
Electra.
Lockheed L-188A Electra Promo
Film #3 – 1959. 17:15 min/sec
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Click on this link..... and click DOWNLOAD
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