Amelia Earhart flew a Lockheed Vega 5B on her 1928 trans-Atlantic flight.
The most famous Lockheed Vega was the “Winnie Mae,” that Wiley Post flew around the world in 1931.
Aircraft description from Aero Digest, April, 1935:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, California
• Seven-place high-wing monoplane. A TC 384. P. & W. Wasp S3Dl engine, 450 horsepower. Span 41 feet. Length overall 27 feet 6 inches. Height overall 9 feet. Wing area 279.1 square feet. Power loading 10.55 pounds per horsepower. Wing loading 17.02 pounds per square foot.
Empty weight 2850 pounds. Useful load 1900 pounds. Gross weight 4750 pounds. Fuel capacity 96 gallons. Oil capacity 10 gallons.
Maximum speed 190 miles per hour. Cruising speed 180 miles per hour. Landing speed 61 miles per hour. Service ceiling 18,500 feet. Rate of climb 1300 feet per minute. Cruising range 660 miles.
Fuselage: monocoque construction, spruce plywood; arranged to seat up to six passengers; side entrance door on port side. Wing: wood, plywood covered; cantilever type with modified Clark “Y” wing section, tapering in chord and section from center to tip; built on 2 spruce box spars with spruce girder ribs. Tail group: stressed skin, all wood cantilever type. Fixed landing gear, split-axle type equipped with Goodrich 9.50 X 12 tires, Warner mechanical brakes, Lockheed shock absorbers, streamlined metal wheel fairings; junction of axle and telescopic leg braced by thrust tube running back to center-line of fuselage. Fafnir, Norma Hoffmann and SKF bearings for engine and plane controls. Main fuel tanks are located in the wings.
Standard equipment includes Exide battery, landing lights, navigation lights, Pyrene pressure fire extinguisher, Pyrene hand fire extinguisher, complete bonding and engine radio shielding, Eclipse electric starter, Bosch generator, United Aircraft Products oil radiator, master switch, Scintilla ignition switch, Hamilton Standard controllable pitch propeller.
Instruments: Pioneer airspeed indicator, altimeter, turn and bank indicator, tachometer, compass, clock, manifold pressure gauge, fuel pressure warning light. Kollsman triple engine gauge. Motometer electrical fuel gauges.
Lockheed Vega Air Express. Frank M. Hawks broke transcontinental speed record in this plane. It was the first production aircraft with the NACA cowling, 1929. Image from NASA Langley Research Center.
The Lockheed Y1C-12 was a U. S. Army procured example of the Lockheed Vega. The military used the craft as a high-speed transport. The most famous Vega built was Oklahoman Wiley Post’s “Winnie Mae.” The Y1C-12, like other Vegas, had a wooden monocoque fuselage and a shoulder mounted wing. Image from NASA Langley Research Center - Multimedia Repository.