Subject: Twenty-Fourth in the Series--the Lockheed-Detroit YP-24

From: [email-masked] (Joseph F Baugher)
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:59:34 GMT

>From Joseph F Baugher <[email-masked]>

The Lockheed-Detroit YP-24 of 1931 was a design ahead of its time.  It 
was the first USAAC low-wing monoplane fighter with retractable 
undercarriage.  It was the first USAAC fighter with enclosed cockpits.  
Perhaps more significantly for later developments, it was the first 
military pursuit design to carry the Lockheed name, although at that 
time Lockheed was owned by the Detroit Aircraft Corporation of 
Michigan.  

The Lockheed Aircraft Company of Santa Barbara, California had been a 
going concern all throughout the 1920s, its best-known product being 
the famous Vega high-wing monoplane which had set so many records.  
However, in 1929, the management of Lockheed voted to sell majority 
share ownership to the Detroit Aircraft Corporation, a Michigan-based 
holding company which already owned the Ryan and Eastman aircraft 
companies and which also had a substantial manufacturing capacity in 
Detroit.  In July 1929, the Detroit Aircraft Corporation acquired 87 
percent of the assets of Lockheed.  On the surface, it appeared that 
the change of owners was not going to affect the day-to-day business 
of Lockheed, and the operationally-independent California team went 
right on producing Vegas, Air Expresses, and Explorers.  New designs 
were also forthcoming: In 1929 Lockheed produced the Sirius, in 1930 
they produced the Altair, and in 1931 the Orion appeared.  

However, the Detroit holding company had some ideas of its own, and 
these resulted in Lockheed's first entry into the pursuit field.  The 
Detroit company undertook the private development of a prototype of a 
two-seat fighter based on the design of the Lockheed Altair low-wing 
cantilever monoplane of 1930.  The Altair was unique for its time in 
that it possessed a cantilever monoplane wing with a fully-retractable 
main undercarriage.  The chief engineer responsible for the project 
was Robert J. Woods, who was based in Detroit.  

A mockup of the fighter was completed in March of 1931.  It bore the 
Wright Field project number of XP-900.  The slim metal fuselage and 
the metal tail surfaces were built by Detroit Aircraft, but the 
wood-framed, plywood-covered wings as well as the undercarriage were 
essentially those of the Altair and were built by Lockheed in 
California.  The final assembly and the initial testing of the 
aircraft were done in Detroit by the parent company.  

The XP-900 was powered by a 600 hp Curtiss Conqueror V-1570C (the 
military designation was V-1570-23) liquid-cooled 12-cylinder vee 
engine driving a three-bladed propeller.  The tunnel radiator and the 
oil cooler were housed beneath the engine just ahead of the wing.  The 
crew of two (pilot and gunner) was housed back to back in enclosed 
cockpits.  The aircraft was armed with two synchronized machine guns 
(one 0.30-in and one 0.50-in) mounted in the upper fuselage nose, plus 
one flexible 0.30-cal gun operated by the gunner firing upward and to 
the rear.  

Brief manufacturer's trials were conducted in Detroit during the 
summer of 1931.  The XP-900 was delivered to Wright Field on Sept 29, 
1931.  At that time, the plane was purchased by the USAAC and given 
the designation YP-24.  It was assigned the USAAC serial number of 
32-320.  The YP-24 underwent testing as a potential replacement for 
the Berliner-Joyce P-16 two-seat pursuit.  The speed of the YP-24 was 
impressive for its time--it was 40 mph faster than the P-16, but it 
was also 20 mph faster than the P-6E, at that time the fastest fighter 
in the USAAC inventory.  Maximum speed was 235 mph.  Initial climb was 
1820 feet/minute.  Service ceiling was 25,000 feet and range was 556 
miles.  Weights were 3010 lbs. empty, 4360 lbs. loaded.  

As a result of the tests, the War Department ordered five Y1P-24 
two-seat fighters and four Y1A-9 attack planes.  The Y1A-9 attack 
version differed from the pursuit version in being powered by a 
V-1570-27 rated at a lower altitude and carried a heavier 
forward-firing armament plus bombs.  

The YP-24 seemed to have a promising future ahead of it.  However, on 
October 19, 1931 the YP-24 prototype was lost when its pilot was 
ordered to bale out rather than attempt a wheels-up landing after the 
undercarriage lever had broken off.  This problem was, of course, 
easily correctable, but for reasons unrelated to the YP-24 accident, 
economic realities were about to overtake the Detroit Aircraft 
Corporation.  

The timing of Detroit's acquisition of Lockheed had been particularly 
unfortunate, since it took place only three months before the stock 
market crash which was to plunge the USA into the Great Depression.  
As the Depression deepened, the Detroit Aircraft holding company found 
that it was in over its head.  Rising losses from other operations 
drained it of any profit.  On October 27, 1931, the Detroit Airctraft 
Corporation went into receivership.  

The bankruptcy of the Detroit holding company meant that it could not 
undertake the manufacture of the Y1P-24s and Y1A-9s.  The project was 
tentatively shelved.  It did not revive until after Robert Woods had 
joined the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, but that is another 
story! 

It looked like the Depression had Lockheed on the ropes.  The 
bankruptcy of its holding company caused the Lockheed Aircraft 
Corporation subsidiary to be placed under the aegis of the Title 
Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles.  Staff was cut to the 
bone, but operations were able to continue on a shoestring basis.  
However, on June 16, 1932 the end of the line finally came and the 
doors of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation were shut.  

It would seem that Lockheed would be just one out of many casualties 
of the Depression, going down the tubes in much the same manner as did 
Thomas-Morse and Berliner-Joyce, its name never to be heard again.  
However, only five days after the doors of the corporation had been 
locked, a miracle took place.  A new group of investors bought the 
assets of the now-defunct Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for only 
$40,000, and the company was brought back from the dead.  And the 
rest, as they say, is history! 

Sources: 

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angellucci and Peter Bowers, Orion Books, 
  1987.  

  Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913, Rene J.  Francillon, Naval Institute 
  Press, 1987.  

Joe Baugher       AT&T Bell Laboratories    2000 North Naperville Road 
		  Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033.   (708) 713-4548