The Lockheed Model 34 Big Dipper was an American two-seat monoplane, designed and built by
Lockheed at
Burbank
Burbank may refer to:
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United States
* Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County
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* Burbank, Illinois, ...
for research into the company's potential entry into the civil lightplane and military light utility aircraft market. Only one was built, and following its loss in an accident the program was abandoned.
Design and development
Developed by
John Thorp
John Willard Thorp (June 20, 1912 – April 18, 1992) was an American aeronautical engineer who made significant contributions to aircraft design throughout his life.
Born in French Camp, California, John Thorp grew up from age four in the ...
and based on his work on Lockheed's
Little Dipper
Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt
* ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film
*The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...
lightplane project,
[Francillon 1982, pp. 277] the Lockheed Model 34, named "Big Dipper", was intended as a prototype for a lightplane to sell on the postwar market - Lockheed hoping to sell the aircraft at a price of $1500
- and as a potential 'flying jeep' for the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
.
It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a fixed
tricycle landing gear
Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...
and a conventional
empennage
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...
; the cabin was enclosed, seating two in side-by-side positions. Unusually the
Continental C100 piston engine was fitted in the center fuselage behind the cabin, driving a two-bladed
pusher propeller
In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...
mounted at the rear of the aircraft.
Operational history
The Model 34 was built at Burbank from July 1945. To keep the project secret the aircraft was moved to Palmdale by road when completed, flight testing being conducted at
Muroc Dry Lake
Rogers Dry Lake is an endorheic desert salt pan in the Mojave Desert of Kern County, California. The lake derives its name from the Anglicization from the Spanish name, Rodriguez Dry Lake. It is the central part of Edwards Air Force Base as its ...
.
It first flew on 10 December 1945, and after 40 hours of flight testing was returned to Burbank for modifications,
intended to correct a wing-root
stall issue that had been identified. It was decided not to complete the modification, and the aircraft was to be flown back to Palmdale on 6 February 1946. To try to keep the Big Dipper secret, it was decided to use a shorter upward sloping runway nearer the factory; in the steep climb needed during takeoff from the shorter runway, the aircraft stalled and crashed.
With the loss of the prototype, and the fact the expected rush of buyers for new lightplanes was failing to materialize amidst a glut of war-surplus aircraft,
[Westwick 2012, p. 66.] the project, and a proposed high-wing four-seat "Super Dipper" derivative, was abandoned;
Specifications
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
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{{Lockheed Martin aircraft
Big Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...
1940s United States civil utility aircraft
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Mid-engined aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1945