Lockheed Twin Tails (was: Lodestar lands at flight museum)

[Lang]

Hanno,

Found this picture of Dutch East Indies Lockheed 12.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Lang

Found this picture of Dutch East Indies Lockheed 12.

Lang, I think this drawing comes from a publication by Dutch Profile. Do you know this book?

Quote from a review of this book:

The ML-KNIL (Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Corps) was the largest single user of the 130 Lockheed L-12 /212 aircraft built, having ordered some 36 examples. There were two versions built for the Dutch, the L-12 which was unarmed, and the L-212 which was equipped with a nose gun, dorsal turret, and could carry a small external bomb load.

There were sixteen L-212’s and two L-12’s delivered to the East Indies, the balance of the orders, eighteen L-12’s, were diverted initially to Australia, India, and to the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School (RNMFS) in Jackson, Miss. One of the L-212’s delivered to the East Indies escaped the Japanese occupation of Java, flying out on March 9, 1942 from Pameungpeuk, Java to Colombo, Ceylon via Medan and Lho Nga Sumatra, crewed by Dutch, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand pilots.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

I think this Life magazine view showing the interior of an aircraft factory shows a Hudson being built.

[Keith Webb]

Certainly has that look about it with the windows in the nose.

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

I think this Life magazine view showing the interior of an aircraft factory shows a Hudson being built.

[Lang]

Hanno,

I don't know the book but it looks full of good info.

The story of the one which flew to Ceylon (I mentioned this trip earlier) was very dramatic. I had a copy of a very large article - about 40 pages over 3 issues - from a flying magazine in the 70's written by one of the pilots but can't find it at present.

Lang

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Lang

The story of the one which flew to Ceylon (I mentioned this trip earlier) was very dramatic. I had a copy of a very large article - about 40 pages over 3 issues - from a flying magazine in the 70's written by one of the pilots but can't find it at present.

Lang,

I have read about this in a Dutch book on the air war over NEI, but it was not recorded in the detail you mentioned. It sounds like one of those extraordinary feats people do when in dire straits.

H.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Lang

The story of the one which flew to Ceylon (I mentioned this trip earlier) was very dramatic. I had a copy of a very large article - about 40 pages over 3 issues - from a flying magazine in the 70's written by one of the pilots but can't find it at present.

Lang,

All I could find about this flight was that the pilot was an NCO by the name of F. Pelder. He was joined by two Australians, a New-Zealander and one Canadian. On 9 March 1942 they flew a Lockheed L2-12 with registration L-201 from Pameumpeuk, Java, to Sumatra. Via Medan and the airfield Lho-Nga near Kotaradja he left on 11 March for Colombo, a 10 hour flight. The 1,500 mile flight could only be carried out by rigging fuel barrels behind the cockpit, and transferring the fuel to the wing tanks by using a hand pump. After landing in Colombo, the aircraft was transferred to the RAF where it was registered as LV762.

The two pictures below were googled from the internet somewhere, they obviously originate from Dutch book(s).

H.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

There were sixteen L-212’s and two L-12’s delivered to the East Indies, the balance of the orders, eighteen L-12’s, were diverted initially to Australia, India, and to the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School (RNMFS) in Jackson, Miss.

Speaking of the RNMFS, here is the sole survivor of a batch of "The Other Twin Tail" which were bought by the NEI Government.

From airwarweb.net I learned Beech AT-11 c/n 3069 was one of 24 ordered by the Dutch for their Naval Air Services in the East Indies. Original serials were A1 to A24. After surrender of the East Indies the aircraft were confiscated by the Americans and they got fake serials by adding the fiscal year number '42' to the manufacturers' construction number. So c/n became 'serial' 42-3057 and so on. During the service the aircraft flew with these 'fake-serials'. When the aircraft were no longer needed they were passed to the USAAF where they got official serials. 44-72005 and on. In 1943 the Dutch Flying School lent a further six AT11s from the USAAF to speed up the training courses.

H.