Warbird Information Exchange

Any news on this old girl?





Shay
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Semper Fortis

Question..so basically this is a Hudson but the cargo version of it?

Thanks in Advance,
Nathan

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In simple terms you could say yes. Both the Model L-18 Lodestar series and Lockheed Hudson series were developed from the Lockheed L-14 Super Electra. Both the Lodestar and Hudson's had some development changes throughout production and had some significant fusleage differences, but the aircraft are very simlar.

Ryan

I believe the Lodestar may be longer than the Hudson, but I'm not certain.

Is this the aircraft that was once painted in Hudson markings? I have an old CAF promotional book that shows a Lodestar painted in British markings.

SN

The Lodestar is a Lockheed L-18. The L-18 is a retooling of the Lockheed L-14, there is a stability problem with the L-14's. To correct the problem they lengthened the fuselage and incorporated other advances that had come along since the L-14 was designed.
The Hudson is a light bomber designed from the L-14 and suffer the same stability issues as it's parent airframe. If it were not for the British contract for the Hudson, Lockheed might not have survived.
The aircraft in question is a Lockheed C-60A that was built and delievered to the Army in 1942. The airplane was released by the Army in 1945. It was used commerically until donated to the CAF in the 60's. Early in its CAF career it was painted in British colors and on the show circuit as a Hudson. When the aircraft was assigned to the Old Dominion Squadron, the bird was reworked into a jump platform/cargo version. The unit flew the airplane up and down the east coast until 2005. ON V-J day in 2005 the aircraft was involved in an incident that resulted in damage to the belly and both nacelles while recovering from a media flight marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2.
Attempts were made to repair the 'Lady' but it was determined to be outside of the abilities of the local unit to fund the necessary repairs. The Lodestar is now under the control of CAF HQ at Midland and they are looking for someone to step forward and help restore this grand old Lady.
Keep'em Flying,
Bob
Old Dominion Squadron/CAF
Asst Operations Officer
'Lady Lodestar' Assistant Crew Chief

Great explanation Bob....Lockheed was still suffering the financial blues in 1941, even with deliveries of the Hudson, work on the P-38, and tooling up production lines for the Vega built B-17...the L-18 wasn't the big hit with the airlines that it was hoped to be...The Brits were pleased with the Hudson, but wanted something with a little more speed, armament, and bomb load...so Lockheed took the L-18, redesigned the fuselage for the ventral (tunnel) gun position, as the firewalls were originally built for a larger engine than the 1820 Wrights, it wasn't a problem to hang the P&W 2800's in their place....to become the PV-1 Ventura....The Brits didn't care for it , as they didn't seem to have very good results during it's initial combat career with them...it was way under-gunned with the .30 machineguns instead of the later .50's....just didn't have the defensive punch that it needed. By the way, I'm not sure, but the guns may have been the .303??? The early Ventura's were also said to be slow....although the prototype PV-1 hit speeds well over 300 MPH, but the RAF in their mission with the PV-1, had it heavily loaded, and I believe that the bulbous Bolton-paul turret may have had something to do with it....I know that when the U.S. Navy took over the production run, they were quite pleased with it, and they were known to have outrun Japaneese Zeros on many occasions. Geez! Y'all recon I could get my learnin permit after all that ?

Gary,
You are right about the Ventura and the British not liking it. I believe that a large part of their dislike was because of the mission that they assigned the Ventura. They wanted a bomber and not a patrol aircraft. When the USN used the Ventura, it was in the patrol role, the USMC even used the PV-1 for a night fighter. From what I have learned is that the PV-1 was a fast plane and was preferred over the PV-2 Harpoon when it came to speed for a quick get away.
Bob

Sorry to hear that. Is that to say that "Lady" will not remain in Hampton Roads? I was always drawn to her at shows and unfortunately only ever saw on static and never flying.

hmmm....if only we knew someone with an excess of Lockheed Lodestar parts.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Hi Bob,

Not to challenge the exact date of the accident, but I remember the accident took place on August 13, 2005, a couple of days before the actual 60th anniversary (August 15th). The reason I remember is I was on my FAA check ride for my private pilots license with Steve Martin flying out of CPK in one of Horizon's Katana's. We circled above the Lady Lodestar shortly at PVG after the accident (fire truck lights were visible from just off of CPK) at 2500 and the flew west to continue on the check ride.
If that wasn't eventful enough, when I was coming back into CPK for my landings about 45 minutes after flying over Lady Lodestar, a Kolb ultralight augured in after stalling on takeoff of rw23, and I had to divert back to CPK. A bunch of the guys that were on board the Lady Lodestar were in the airfield cafe, and I really want to say that I heard on of the gentlemen order the Lady Lodestar burger.

I remember the date due to my check ride. I flew the Katana back to CPK solo while Steve flew out in a Beech Baron or Debonair, and the fire trucks were still at the lodestar, and landed well after the accident aircraft and fire trucks at CPK. I've been considering writing an article for AOPA about my rather eventful check ride.

FYI, I passed my check ride!!!

Its been good to see her back on her gear, but I was wondering why it seemed like progress had stopped. Any new word on progress from Midland?

Courtesy Aircraft Sales has it listed as sold. It had been up on their inventory list for quite some time. I saw the price down very, very low before it was sold. I hope she's off to good hands.

http://www.courtesyaircraft.com/inventory%20table.htm

http://www.courtesyaircraft.com/Current ... 018-50.htm

I'm glad to see it finally sold and I too hope she's off to a good home. The last price I saw listed was $12,500. I think when it was first listed it was around $30,000 but I think (core) engines, nacelles and cowls were still with the project at that time. It had been long enough and the price reduced so many times I was worried about her going to the scrapper. I was ready to buy it but I hadn't been able to find somewhere that I could afford to store it yet. I hope whoever ended up with it has the resources to return it to the air.

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Just another in the long list of bodies sold by "Steve's Used Plane Lot". At least it wasn't a flying airplane.

Makes you wonder why the bird was on the market for so long......It must have been pranged pretty good.....A lot of interest in this bird, seems like it would have been snapped up before now.

I remember seeing this plane at Geneseo at least once. Certainly she deserves to be restored... but finding someone who wants to spend a small fortune fixing a relatively unglamorous transport seems to have been difficult. Let's hope the new owner will put her back in the air.

Unless I win the lotto, I can't do it....