[Don Boose]

This paper model by Garry Gillard is of U.S. Navy Detroit-Lockheed XRO-1 Altair as it appeared in 1931 and 1932 when assigned to Naval Air Station (NAS) Anacostia and used as a command transport by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics, David S. Ingalls.

The Lockheed Altair was a development of the Lockheed Sirius Model 8, a sleek, low-wing two-place monoplane designed by Gerry Vultee for Charles Lindberg who, with his wife, Anne Morrow Lindberg, used the airplane, in both fixed wheeled landing gear and in floatplane configuration as his personal transport and for long-range survey flights all over the world. Other famous aviators also used versions of the Sirius 8 for long-range flights.

The Sirius, which was based on the earlier Lockheed Vega and Air Express and the low-wing Explorer designed by Jack Northrup, had a wooden monocoque fuselage with wings and fuselage covered with a thin plywood skin. After the Detroit Aircraft Corporation acquired Lockheed in 1929, they produced versions of the Vega and Sirius as DL models (DL meaning “Detroit-Lockheed”) with all-metal fuselages. When Lindberg asked Lockheed for a version of the Sirius with a retractable landing gear, Lockheed developed an undercarriage that retracted inward and upward into the wing center section, one of the first of this type, and combined this wing and undercarriage structure with a Lockheed Sirius 8A fuselage (Constructor Number [C/N] 153), which they re-designated as the Lockheed 8D Altair, continuing the Lockheed custom of naming aircraft after navigational stars.

The Army Air Corps (AAC) acquired the aircraft, which, under the designation Y1C-25 was flown by Major Ira Eaker as a test aircraft. Lockheed built a total of ten Altair 8s, the most famous of which was Altair 8D C/N 152, VH-USB, Lady Southern Cross, used by Sir Charles Kingsford for his long-distance Australia-United States Pacific crossing on 20 October 1934.

Detroit-Lockheed built two metal-fuselage Altair DL-2As, one of which (C/N 165) was acquired by the AAC and designated Y1C-23; the other (C/N 179) was sold to the Navy, given BuNo 9054, and designated XRO-1 (First Experimental [“X”] Transport [“R”] built by Lockheed [“O”]). This aircraft, the subject of Garry’s model, was delivered to Naval Air Station Anacostia on 8 October 1931 by the famous racing pilot Roscoe Turner and used for two years, primarily as the command aircraft of Navy World War I fighter ace and Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics, David S. Ingalls (see Garry’s model of Ingalls’s Boeing F4B-1A command aircraft and biographical information on Ingalls at US Navy and USMC Between The Wars in 1/100).

The aircraft was painted in the special scheme for command aircraft. The fuselage and vertical stabilizer were painted Admiral Blue (a dark blue similar to Insignia Blue), with a silver cheat line and “U.S. Navy” on the fuselage. The Wings and horizontal tail surfaces were aluminum, with the top of the wing painted Chrome Yellow.

I have been unable to determine the final disposition of BuNo 9054, which was placed in storage in 1932.

Images:

1. Racing pilot Roscoe Turner delivers the Detroit-Lockheed DL-2A Altair constructor number 179 (Navy XRO-1 BuNo 9054) to the Navy at Naval Air Station Anacostia on 30 September 1931. Source: Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register, available at https://dmairfield.com/people/turner_ro/index.html

2. Detroit-Lockheed DL-2A Altair XRO-1 BuNo 9054 at Anacostia 8 October 1931. Source: Francillon p. 107.

3. Another view of BuNo 9054, probably taken at the same time as Image 2. Source: Swanborough and Bowers, p. 422.

4. David S. Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics circa 1932. Source: Oregon Historical Society Digital Archive, available at https://digitalcollections.ohs.org/d...or-aeronautics

6. Painting by John Ficklen of David S. Ingalls and one of his WWI victories. Source: Naval Aviation 1911-1986 p. 14.

Sources:

Joe Baugher, “US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos, First Series (A6002 to 9999),” available at http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/firstseries2.html

Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register, “Roscoe Turner,” available at https://dmairfield.com/people/turner_ro/index.html

Thomas E. Doll, Berkley R. Jackson, and William A. Riley, Navy Air Colors: United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Camouflage and Markings, Vol. 1 1911-1945, Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal, 1983.

John M. Elliott, The Official Monogram US Navy & Marine Corps Aircraft Color Guide, Vol. 1, 1911-1939, Boylston, MA: Monogram Aviation Publications, 1989.

René J. Francillon, Lockheed Aircraft since 1913, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1982.

Peter Freeman, Wings of the Fleet: US Navy & Marine Corps Aviation 1919-1941, On Target Special, Ardington, Oxfordshire, UK: The Aviation Workshop Publications Ltd., 2010, p. 33.

E.R. Johnson, United States Naval Aviation 1919-1941: Aircraft, Airships and Ships Between the Wars, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011.

Joseph P. Juptner, U.S. Civil Aircraft Series, Volume 3, ATC 201-ATC 300, Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Aero Publishers, 1966.

---, U.S. Civil Aircraft Series, Volume 4, ATC 301-ATC 400, Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Aero Publishers, 1967.

William T. Larkins, U.S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941, Concord, CA: Aviation History Publications, 1961.

Sandy Russell and Staff of Naval Aviation News, Naval Aviation 1911-1986: A Pictorial Study, Washington, DC: GPO, 1986, available at https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/publications/Publication-PDF/NavalAviation1911-1986.pdf

Gordon Swanborough and Peter M Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968.

An additional valuable source of information on the XRO-1 and other Navy command aircraft that I was unable to obtain in time for this write up is William A. Riley and Thomas Doll, “Blue Goose,” Command Aircraft of the USN, USMC, and USCG 1911 to 1961, Simi Valley, CA: Ginter Publications, 2015.