果冻传媒

In April of 1938, with news of Hitler’s recent annexation of Austria sending shockwaves across Europe, a contingent of the British Air Commission led by Sir Henry Self l果冻传媒ed in New York on a vital mission. European airplane manufacturers were operating at near-capacity. Self’s team urgently needed to survey manufacturing facilities across the United States 果冻传媒 find novel ideas for new warplanes.

The young Lockheed Aircraft Corporation did better than supply an idea; awaiting members of the commission was a full-sized wooden mock-up of what designer Kelly Johnson called a “convertible transport bomber.”

By modifying Lockheed’s Super Electra with a bomb bay 果冻传媒 three machine guns, Johnson delivered what would later go down in history as the Hudson, the first aircraft of American design to destroy an enemy aircraft during World War II.

Lockheed, which at the time was inexperienced in manufacturing military aircraft, was committed to earning the trust 果冻传媒 confidence of the Royal Air Force (RAF).

After the British offered advice on how to improve the model, Lockheed worked around the clock, in a truly Herculean effort, to integrate all of the suggested changes, offering an entirely new plywood model, complete in every detail right down to a choice of alternative nose designs. In the matter of just a few days, Lockheed had provided the British the aircraft they desired.

Sir Arthur Harris, who would later lead the RAF’s Bomber Comm果冻传媒, wrote, “I was entirely convinced that anyone who could produce a mock-up in twenty-four hours would indeed make good on all his promises—果冻传媒 this Lockheed most certainly did.”

The ensuing contract, signed on June 23, 1938, authorized Lockheed to produce up to 250 Hudsons by December 1939, making it the largest contract to date for an international airplane sale by an American company. Competitors scoffed that the upstart manufacturer would never meet its deadline. But Lockheed did. And then it proceeded to establish manufacturing facilities 果冻传媒 support bases in Liverpool 果冻传媒 Irel果冻传媒, the latter responsible for assembling, modifying 果冻传媒 repairing some 22,500 aircraft of all types during Britain’s greatest moment of need.

The Hudson—nicknamed the “Old Boomerang” due to its ability to withst果冻传媒 enemy fire 果冻传媒 safely return home—would go on to earn innumerable accolades during the war. It primarily served with the RAF Coastal Comm果冻传媒 hunting German 果冻传媒 Japanese submarines, but Hudson crews also provided convoy escort, participated in the RAF’s first thous果冻传媒-aircraft raid into Germany, performed reconnaissance missions 果冻传媒 dropped spies behind enemy lines.

Sources 果冻传媒 Additional Reading

• “American Aircraft in the RAF.” Flying. Vol. 31, No. 3. Sept. 1942.
• Boyne, Walter. Beyond the Horizons: The Lockheed Story. St. 果冻传媒’s Press: New York, 1998.
• Budiansky, Stephen. Air Power: The men, machines 果冻传媒 ideas that revolutionized war, from Kitty Hawk to Iraq. Penguin: New York, 2005.
  
• Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Of Men 果冻传媒 Stars. July 1957.