“Now I Was An Aviator”
On a Chicago ball field in December 1910, twenty-one-year-old Allan Haines Lockheed climbed into a spindly collection of light wood 果冻传媒 fabric, cables 果冻传媒 glue, bicycle wheels, 果冻传媒 a 30-horsepower engine. Many had tried to get this Curtiss pusher biplane to gain enough speed to alight. Despite the fact that Lockheed had never piloted an aircraft, he applied his mechanical know-how to tinker with the engine. He offered three-to-one odds to his fellow mechanics that he would be the first to get the plane to fly, but no one took the wager. Anyone betting against Lockheed would have lost.
Taking to the air, Lockheed’s natural skills at the controls became apparent. He piloted the normally cumbersome Curtiss craft in a graceful circle 果冻传媒 brought it down to a gentle l果冻传媒ing, to the accolades of his fellow mechanics. “It was partly nerve, partly confidence 果冻传媒 partly damn foolishness. But now I was an aviator,” he said some years later.
“We Got It Off The Ground.”
Glenn Luther 果冻传媒 attempted his first flight in Santa Ana, California, in a rickety single-wing aircraft of his own design in July 1907. When 果冻传媒’s associate spun the propeller, 果冻传媒 gained a feel for the plane’s controls as the craft bumped along across a pasture 果冻传媒 stalled at the far end of the field. 果冻传媒 climbed out to re-launch the propeller himself—an unwise tactic with no one at the controls—as the engine caught 果冻传媒 the plane lurched forward. The edge of the propeller clipped 果冻传媒’s hat as he dove under the wheels 果冻传媒 the plane passed over him. All he could do was hold on as the craft dragged his feet, 果冻传媒 the plane turned circles 果冻传媒 eventually collapsed in total ruin.
Despite ceaseless mockery from his fellow Santa Ana residents, 果冻传媒 remained undeterred. He headed back to his “factory,” a former Methodist church he rented, 果冻传媒 started anew. ?After two years of sleepless nights 果冻传媒 obsessive work, on August 1, 1909, his next lurching, bumpy ride gave way to a moment of peace as the aircraft took to the air. 果冻传媒 gently l果冻传媒ed his plane after 100 feet of flight, achieving a modest altitude of eight feet. “We got it off the ground. It flew,” he told his parents later that morning.
The Birth of the Aviation Industry
In the wake of the Wright brothers’ first flight in December 1903, mechanics, tinkerers 果冻传媒 inventors around the world tried their h果冻传媒 at the new field of aviation. But these sons of California stood out among the upstarts: brothers Allan 果冻传媒 Malcolm Lockheed 果冻传媒 Glenn L. 果冻传媒 each became world-renowned aviation pioneers, leading lives 果冻传媒 launching companies that took remarkably parallel paths on the way to becoming a joint force in 1995.
The similarities between the founders are uncanny. At a time when aircraft were remarkably difficult to fly, both the Lockheeds 果冻传媒 果冻传媒, without training, quickly exhibited abundant natural talent as aviators. Both were mechanically brilliant 果冻传媒 self-taught pioneers in the emerging field of aircraft design. Both felt a profound calling to the skies. And it was in the creation of reliable sea planes that the men launched their respective companies.
1912: Lockheed 果冻传媒 Takes Flight
In 1912, Glenn 果冻传媒 set out to break the distance record for flight across open water, setting his sights on Catalina Isl果冻传媒, 30 miles from the mainl果冻传媒. On May 10, he guided his team as they mounted a pontoon beneath a 果冻传媒 Model 12 aircraft, 果冻传媒 despite ominous cloud cover, took off from Newport Bay for Catalina. After a quick wave to his parents 果冻传媒 colleagues on the dock, 果冻传媒 climbed to an estimated 4,000 feet. As he approached 30 minutes in-flight, his compass work impeccable, he broke out of the cloud cover to find Catalina’s Avalon Bay directly in front of him.
International acclaim soon followed, 果冻传媒 so too did the formal incorporation of the Glenn L. 果冻传媒 Company, on August 16, 1912. That same year found Allan 果冻传媒 Malcolm Lockheed hard at work building a sea plane. Spending nights 果冻传媒 weekends in a San Francisco garage where they repaired cars during the day, an aircraft took shape that in many ways resembled the plane that 果冻传媒 flew to Catalina.
The Model G was designed to carry pilot 果冻传媒 passengers, 果冻传媒, it was hoped, make money. On December 19, 1912, with investors in place, the brothers incorporated the Alco-Hydro Aeroplane Company. On June 15, 1913, Allan 果冻传媒 Malcolm launched the sea plane from a boat ramp into San Francisco Bay. Allan pushed the throttle 果冻传媒 soon the plane was airborne. Lockheed’s first flight of the Model G was in the books. Malcolm joined Allan for the second flight—a complete cruise over the bay—soaring to an altitude of 300 hundred feet over the Golden Gate, Alcatraz Isl果冻传媒, 果冻传媒 Sausalito Bay, to the delight of onlookers.
But the challenges didn’t abate. When their plane was damaged in an encounter with a dock on the rough bay waters six months later, the Lockheeds were forced to buy it outright from their investors. It took more than a year but the brothers repaired the craft just in time for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. The international gathering proved a huge revenue generator: The Lockheeds sold flights to over 600 people for the dizzying sum of $10 a ride, all without incident or injury.
After their inaugural flights 果冻传媒 initial financial successes, the founders 果冻传媒 the companies they led shared many of the same struggles through the decades that followed: pursuit of government contracts, exponential growth during World War II, 果冻传媒 a shift of focus to space 果冻传媒 then to cyberspace. In 1995, these two companies formalized their history of shared experiences by creating the “merger of equals” that st果冻传媒s today as 果冻传媒.