From Aero Digest, April, 1935:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, California
• Seven-place low-wing monoplane. ATC 514. P. & W. Wasp S1D1 engine, 550 horsepower. Span 42 feet 9.25 inches. Length overall 28 feet 4 inches. Height overall 9 feet 8 inches. Wing area 294-1 square feet. Power loading 10.54 pounds per horsepower. Wing loading 19.72 pounds per square foot.
Empty weight 3640 pounds. Useful load 2160 pounds. Gross weight 5800 pounds. Fuel capacity 116 gallons. Oil capacity 10 gallons.
Maximum speed 225 miles per hour. Cruising speed 205 miles per hour. Landing speed 63 miles per hour. Service ceiling 22,000 feet. Rate of climb 1400 feet per minute. Cruising range 720 miles.
Fuselage: monocoque construction of spruce plywood. Wing: cantilever construction of 2-spar wood type, plywood covered; electrically-operated flaps of stressed skin, all-metal at trailing edge. Tail group: stressed skin, all wood. Retractable landing gear consisting of 2 steel tube pyramids, equipped with General streamline tires. Auto-fan mechanical wheels and brakes, Aerol shock absorbers. Fafnir, Norma-Hoffmann, and SKF bearings for engine and plane controls. The landing gear units fold inward into a recess in the underside of the wing, with a plate coming up from behind to cover the aperture.
Standard equipment includes landing and navigation lights, Pyrene pressure and hand fire extinguishers, parking brake, bonding and shielding, Eclipse electric starter, Bosch generator, United Aircraft Products oil radiator, master switch, Exide battery. Hamilton Standard controllable-pitch propeller, landing gear position indicator, flap position indicator.
Instruments: Pioneer airspeed indicator, altimeter, rate of climb indicator, turn and bank indicator, tachometer, compass, clock, fuel pressure warning light, manifold pressure gauge. Kollsman triple engine gauge, Weston engine temperature indicator. Motometer fuel gauges.
This Lockheed Orion was flown by Major James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle when he was employed by the Shell Oil Co. It was known as the “Shellightning”. Note the NACA cowling, internally braced wing and retractable landing gear. Image from NASA Langley Research Center – Multimedia Repository.