The Lockheed Electra

The Lockheed Electra was my first 'ride'.

My mother needed to recuperate after an illness, and I was old enough to travel, so off to Miami we went ... in the Spring of 1961.

If memory serves, it was on the return trip that the ?Eastern Airlines pilot proudly announced that we were flying on the new Lockheed Electra ... perhaps to settle nerves during a storm?

Well, my mother - who read the New York Times every day - was beside herself because these planes were dropping like flies.

From Harro Rantor's Aviation Safety Database:

- 2356 Tue 3 February 1959 total loss (65 dead) on approach (hit the water) at La Guardia Airport NYC (LGA) ... <10 miles from home

- 0800 Wed 14 September 1960 total loss on approach (hit the berm) at La Guardia Airport NYC (LGA) ... still <10 miles from home

- other 'lost hull events': 29-SEP-1959, 17-MAR-1960, 19-JUL-1960, 04-OCT-1960 ...

Whew! We made it alive!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockh...-188_Electra ... reports the first flight as 06 December 1957

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-3_Orion ... I did not know that the P-3 Orion patrol aircraft was an Electra 'variant'

Those were the days when prices on each route were fixed by the CAB (Civil Aeronautics Board), so the airlines competed on the extras: I remember postcards & decks of playing cards, myself, but have none to show for it :(

Sadly for the collector, The Golden Age of Commercial Aviation coincided neatly with The Grubby Age of the Cruddy Chromes, so the production value of the cards is usually disappointing at best.

Still, it was my first ride, and here it is.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey