The Famous Flying Lockheed Brothers

摘要

Charles A. Lindbergh's 1927 New York-to-Paris flight produced an explosion of aviation activity, as designers brought forth a multitude of new and sometimes very unusual aircraft. One of these was the Vega, which made its first flight within two months of the historic transatlantic flight. There was a stark contrast between Lindbergh's airplane, Spirit of St. Louis, and the Vega. Lindbergh's airplane, a highly modified version of the Mahoney-Ryan M-2, was from a bygone era. It combined a conventional steel-tube-and-fabric fuselage with a wood-and-fabric wing, held together with drag-inducing struts. In contrast, the streamlined, all-wood Vega sported a cantilever wing and a molded, partially load-bearing fuselage.