Lockheed 10 Electra

This Lego set is based on the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, a vintage early 1930s multi-engine light civil airliner. It became quite famous as it was also chosen by the renowned American female pioneer Amelia Earhart in an ill-fated attempt to fly around the world.

This plane allowed to transport 10 passengers as well as baggage and mail by 2 pilots 800 miles across the country. The plane was built by Lockheed in Burbank, Calif. in 1934 and sold to airlines and business companies worldwide. Out of 149 built, only one Lockheed model 10 Electra still seldomly flies today in Europe.

 

First, I planned to design another well-known and very similar aircraft of that time, the Beech(craft) 18. However, I came across some design difficulties, thus I chose to go for the no less beautiful machine. In general, I think there a lot of great designs in architecture and vehicles. Though, I feel planes are a bit underrepresented and even more so for vintage aircraft. I would like to try changing that. I attempted to build the design as sturdy and “playable as possible”, nevertheless also due to its weight of approx. 1.3 kg it is more suited as a stand model.

 

The most demanding part was to design the mechanisms for the retractable flaps and undercarriage as the wings are angled. Still but less troublesome was to design and level the engine including the undercarriage. 

Further features of the set include:

9 minifigures are suggested for the set: Captain (pilot), Co-pilot, a mechanic/operator. As fares were quite a bargain at that time this flight’s passengers are a wealthy family (from Texas), a retired couple and a mysterious businessman. 

 

Shout out to my nephew who started the project with me more than two years ago and gave me valuable feedback and is looking forward to the possible final design.

Thanks to SylvainLS from the Bricklink forum support team for helping me to tackle some problems with Studio software.