Allan Haines Lockheed (né Allan Haines Loughead; January 20, 1889 – May 26, 1969) was an American aviation engineer and businessman. He formed the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company along with his brother, Malcolm Loughead, which became Lockheed Corporation.Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, p. 59, Cypress, CA, 2013.
Loughead changed his name during 1934 to Allan Lockheed, the phonetic spelling of his family name, to avoid spelling confusion. He went on to begin two other aircraft manufacturing companies in the 1930s. He focused on real estate between the 1940s to 1960s.Parker, Dana. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, p. 59, Cypress, CA, 2013.
Early life
Loughead was born in Niles, California, on the 20th of January 1889.
Flora Haines Loughead was a well-known novelist and journalist. The Loughead brothers attended elementary school only, but were mechanically inclined from an early age. He worked as a mechanic in San Francisco during the early 1900s. By 1909, he was driving race cars.
Early experience with aviation Loughead began his aviation experience with the Curtiss Model D as an employee for James E. Plew. Allan and Malcolm Loughead installed a 2-cylinder, 12 hp motor on the Montgomery glider with Victor as engineer. During 1910, he became a pilot.
The Curtiss pusher was powered by a 30 hp engine.
When Plew withdrew from aviation after two of his planes were wrecked and a student killed, Loughead became a flight instructor with the International Aeroplane Manufacturing Company in Chicago, and put on aerial exhibitions for 25% of the gate receipts. Later he said: "I was really rich the first week out. I made something like $850." During an exhibition at Hoopeston, Illinois, his rain-soaked airplane failed to climb enough and was entangled in telephone wires. At that point, he decided to build a better aircraft so he could collect all of the gate receipts.
Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company
Loughead returned to San Francisco in 1912 and went to work as an auto mechanic. There, he and his brother Malcolm spent their spare time building a three-place seaplane to operate from San Francisco Bay. They constantly ran out of money until they convinced Max Mamlock of the Alco Cab Company to invest $4,000 in the plane. Finally, after 18 months, their Model G was christened the ALCO NO. 1 in 1913, and Allan Loughead made a successful flight in it from the waters of the Golden Gate entrance to San Francisco Bay.
That first flight was on June 15, 1913. The flight reached an altitude of 300 feet and a speed of 60 miles per hour. Allan then returned to take Malcolm for a ride. The Model G made three flights that day.
Allan Lockheed recalled in 1942 that the Model G was built mostly with hand tools and called the aircraft "one of the first successful three place tractor seaplanes in the United States."
While the Model G, the first plane to bear the Loughead (Lockheed) name, was far ahead of its time, few would pay $10 to fly in it. Mamlock soon lost his enthusiasm for aviation and seized the plane. He told the Lougheads if they wanted it back, they would have to repay his $4,000. Consequently, in the hopes of striking it rich, the Loughead brothers spent two unsuccessful years prospecting in California's gold country.
With the financial aid of Alaskan pioneer Paul Meyer, Allan and Malcolm Loughead bought the Model G back in 1915 and opened a flying concession at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. In five months, they took 600 paying passengers aloft and netted $4,000. Henry Ford was one person who turned down a ride, saying, "I would not take even a straightaway flight four feet above the bay in anybody's aeroplane for all the money in California."
In early 1916, the Loughead brothers moved the operation to Santa Barbara, where they were swamped by people wanting to make their first flight. In addition, they made charter flights to the off-shore islands, and local movie companies used the plane to take aerial footage.
Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company In 1916, the brothers founded Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara to build a 10-place, twin-engined F-1 flying boat for their aerial sightseeing business. They began construction in a rented garage, which attracted the attention of 20-year-old John K. "Jack" Northrop. Northrop was skilled in drafting and mathematics, and the Lougheads employed him in designing the F-1.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Allan Loughead went to Washington, D.C. to get a Navy contract to build the F-1 in quantity. The Navy informed Loughead that it would purchase only previously approved designs. Later, Loughead said of this visit, "Down there I lost all the patriotism I ever had." He did return with a contract to build two Curtiss flying boats and an agreement for the Navy to test the F-1.
When the F-1 was completed, Allan Loughead and a crew of three flew it from Santa Barbara to San Diego in April 1918, setting a record of 181 minutes for the 211-mile flight. After the Navy completed its tests, the F-1 was returned to Loughead Aircraft and was then converted into the F-lA land-plane. Loughead hoped to interest the Army in it as a long-range bomber or transport plane. The war ended before its conversion was completed.
The Lougheads attempted to demonstrate the long-range potential of the F-lA by making the first flight from Santa Barbara to Washington, D.C. Their crew included pilot Orvar Meyerhoffer, co-pilot Aaron R. Ferneau, and mechanic Leo G. Flint. They departed Santa Barbara on November 23. En route they encountered severe weather, which cleared when they crossed the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona. Near Tacna, Arizona, an engine failed and Meyerhoffer made a rough landing. Flint worked on the engine while Meyerhoffer and Ferneau took a train to Yuma to have the broken tailskid repaired. The trio cleared a makeshift runway, took off, and landed at Gila Bend, Arizona for fuel. On the second takeoff attempt, the engine quit, and the plane crashed nose first into the ground. That ended the F-lA's transcontinental flight.
When Loughead Aircraft completed its two HS-2L flying boats for the Navy in early 1919, it then converted the damaged F-lA landplane back into the F-1 flying boat for its sightseeing flight operations. Among their most notable passengers were King Albert and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, whom the Lougheads flew at the request of the US government. Albert and Elisabeth were so impressed with their flight to Santa Cruz Island that they presented Allan and Malcolm with the Belgian Order of the Golden Crown. Local movie studios paid $50 an hour for flight time in the F-1 and $50 an hour while on standby.
In 1919, Loughead Aircraft entered the small aircraft market with the single-seat S-1 Sport Biplane. Intended to be "the poor man's airplane", it featured an innovative molded plywood monocoque fuselage for which the Lougheads, Northrop and Tony Stadlman received a patent. Its foldable wings allowed storage in a garage, and the lower wings could be rotated to act as ailerons and airbrakes. Because no suitable engines were available, the company designed and built a 25-horsepower water-cooled engine for the S-1.
The S-1 was tested successfully at Redwood City, California, in 1919 by Gilbert Budwig and flew well. After the S-1 completed test flights, the pilot said it was the most flyable plane he had ever flown. The plane made hundreds of flights and proved to be a successful design.
At an aircraft show in San Francisco, thousands admired the S-1, but no one ordered the $2,500 plane. Allan Loughead realized that the government's sale of war surplus aircraft for as little as $300 had killed the market for new aircraft. As a result, Loughead Aircraft closed in 1920 and its assets were liquidated in 1921.
Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Company Malcolm Loughead formed the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Company in 1919 to promote a revolutionary four-wheel hydraulic brake system that he had invented. Tired of his name being mispronounced "Log-head", Malcolm changed the spelling to match its pronunciation. Walter Chrysler introduced the Lockheed brake system on the first Chrysler car in 1924. Malcolm sold his business to Bendix in 1932.
Real estate business From 1920 to 1922, Allan Loughead was the Los Angeles sales manager for Lockheed brakes.
In the summer of 1922, Allan Loughead operated a ride concession at Catalina Island. Called "The Thrill of Avalon", it consisted of a touring car body mounted on two seaplane floats and powered by an aircraft engine driving a pusher propeller. The skimmer proved to be too rough and noisy to be popular and lasted only a year. Later, when asked if he made any profit on the venture, Loughead laughed and said, "No, we went broke, which was not a new experience!"
In 1922, Allan Loughead became a real estate salesman in the Hollywood area. He wrote in 1942 that the real estate business was "not interesting, but from a financial standpoint [it was] very successful."
Whenever possible, Loughead and Jack Northrop would get together and discuss ideas about new aircraft. By then Northrop was an engineer with the Douglas Aircraft Company.
In 1926, Allan Loughead and Jack Northrop decided to build a high-speed monoplane with a capacity of four passengers and a pilot in a streamlined fuselage using their patented monocoque construction. Northrop created drawings of the plane at home. The plane was to be powered by the new Wright Whirlwind engine. The only disagreement arose over the wing. Northrop wanted to use a self-supporting cantilever design that eliminated wing struts. Loughead believed the public wouldn't want to fly in a plane without visible wing supports. In the end, Northrop won.
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
Loughead and Northrop set out to form an aircraft company. Loughead's accountant friend, Kenneth Jay, introduced them to Fred S. Keeler, a successful brick and ceramics manufacturer. After reviewing their proposal, he agreed to help finance the project. As a result, using $22,500 from Keeler and $2,500 from Loughead, the four formed the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in December 1926, with Keeler as president, Loughead as vice president and general manager, Northrop as chief engineer and Stadlman as factory superintendent. They used the "Lockheed" spelling to associate themselves with Malcolm's successful brake company.
The company established operations in a garage in Hollywood in January 1927. While Loughead continued his real estate business, he arrived every afternoon to help on the plane. The first major task was to build a concrete mold, shaped like an elongated bath tub, for molding half of the laminated wood fuselage. Two halves were made and then fastened to a skeleton framework of wood to form the fuselage. Next came the construction of the plywood-covered cantilever wing, the tail surfaces, the landing gear and mounting the engine. When completed, the company had invested nearly $17,500 in the plane, which was named the Vega. The result was a successful high-speed monoplane with a range of 1,000 miles, a cruising speed of 185 miles per hour, and capacity of six people.Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp. 59-60, Cypress, CA, 2013.