Below are a selection of stories and recolections which I have collected over the years.
If you have anything Lockheed Twin related you'd like to see here please contact me.

Hope you like them... Michael Zoeller

DOUGLAS MOODY:
Fishy Business
"During the early to mid 1950's, my father flew a Lodestar for Paramount Aquariums based out of Southern Florida, the reg. was N94547 later N56M (2047). The first of the two Lodestars, th other was N94547/N57M (2051) operated by that company sported a tropical fish painted on the nose.

The owner of Paramount Aquariums was Fred Koshew (uncertain of correct spelling), and the pilot, my father, was Walter P. Moody. I accompanied my father on one of his flights to South America in one of those airplanes when I was around 9 or 10. That flight marked the first time I was permitted to touch the controls of an aircraft inflight, and that was somewhere over the so-called Bermuda Triangle."

GIL HALPIN:
Jumper
"We hauled 16 parachutist's on Lodestar N43WT (2565) to 15,000ft 6 to 8 times a day every weekend(1973/1983), as well as operating out of a 2800ft runway! She was quite the celebrity around the local township and many people would come out just to see her take to flight!"

GLYN HEATH:
Ralco
"I worked for RALCO in Douglas, AZ. Ralph bought N1448 Harpoon (15-1478) to fly for the Bureau of Indian Affairs between White River and Phoenix AZ. Thoughts of using it for a sprayer never evolved. Aircraft was sold with interior intact.

Ralph (Johnson) owned two shops , Douglas, AZ and Bainbridge, GA. When RALCO ( also know as Master Equipment Co. ) closed its doors some aircraft went to Chandler and are still there."

MICHAEL MEEK:
Fully Dressed
"I was lucky enough to earn a type rating in the L-18 several years ago; the most fun that I have with clothes on in ages."

GEORGE SHOTWELL:
Hanging out at Howard's
"My dad flew N6371C Howard 250 from 1955 till 1981, when it was donated to the Confederate Air Force. N6371C came from Lockheed as N68H and was once owned by Sid Richardson of Garland Texas, then sold to Life & Casuality Insurance Co. of Nashville Tn. This is when my dad started flying it. It was painted with a Learstar paint scheme in 1957 and in 1958 dad flew it to Southwest Airmotive in Dallas where a RCA radar and Learstar nose cone was installed. They took it to Dee Howard in 1959 and had the Goodyear brakes and wheels installed, new 1820-72A engines and stream line cowling installed. At this time they also reworked the wings to remove the old bat wings and installed the new style flaps. In 1961 it was taken back to Howard for a full 250 conversion. While the airplane was being rebuilt, dad took my mom, sister and myself with him for the summer and we lived in San Antonio. I was 12 years old and would hang out at Howard Aero every day with dad. During this time we took a lot of pictures of the airplane as it was being modified. I got to see the very first Tri Gear and have pictures of it. I watch as they did the drop test to certify the nose gear mod. I saw the hangar where Howard was building the 500. There was 4 or 5 being built at the same time. Out side on the ramp where about a half dozed standard Lodestars that Dee owned and were waiting to be modified in between the ones he was modifying for private owners and corporations. After 6 months it came out of Howard as a full 250 with a call number changed to N250LC (LC for Life & Casuality). It was sold in 1967 to Ingram Co and call number changed to N637E. Later in 1968 they took it to Alabama for repaint and on landing during a thunderstorm, it hydroplaned off the runway knocking the gear out, damaging the wing and belly. They had Howard bring another wing and prop and then ferried it back to Howard Aero where it was repaired, repainted and call number changed to N6371C (1C for Ingram Corp.) Dad retired from flying with Ingram in 1982 about a year after Ingram donated N6371C to the Confederate Air Force."

MARK:
"The DEA's gota chopper in the air, I wake up screamin' like I'm back over there" (Steve Earle 'Copperhead Road')
"There is (was) a Lodestar in a lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite National Park that was loaded with Marijuana. Kids used to salvage dope from it for years before the authorities ever learned of its existence. The stuff was tainted with av gas and was not very usable according to an article I read. It might have been removed by now. It was in shallow water (in 1968), but all submerged and not easily visible from the air.

My friend with the Learstar has lots of stories about being shadowed and followed as a suspected drug plane. Once he was trailed by DEA aircraft including their Lockheed P 3 Orion radar plane and a Blackhawk helo and forced to land!"

BUD LANDACRE:
JATO scare
"When I was a kid I spent all my free time at the airport hanging out with my dad and I was allowed to go on maintenance test flights and such. One of Celanese's aircraft (I think it was N101S) was equipped with two JATO bottles in the belly. Since these were solid fuel rocket motors they had an expiration date by which they had to be used or replaced. I was in the back of the aircraft departing Houston when my dad fired the soon to be out of date bottles. As I remember it the aircraft began shuddering and climbing strait up right after lift off. I looked out the passenger window on the right side and could see a lot of smoke below and behind us, it scared the hell out of me. I clawed my way up to the cockpit to tell my dad about the smoke where he met me with a grin and told me what was going on. Great fun, my dad loved to fly.

My last 'close encounter' with a hot-rod Howard occurred back in the mid 70's. I was a proud young co-pilot on a shiny new Merlin III, my first turbo-prop job. We were enroute from Florida back to Texas cruising at 20000 feet and 260 kts when ATC called overtaking traffic at 22000. I looked out the window and saw a Howard 500 going by us like we were standing still. So much for turbines."

ROGER HUMISTON:
The highlight my flying career
"Absolutely the two finest airplanes I have ever flown are the Howard 500 (and the Learjet 24D-XR)

"The Howard 500 that I flew belonged to Dillons Food Stores (Dillons is now owned by a very large US Based grocery chain "Krogers") they used the Howard to travel from Hutchinson, Kansas to Denver, CO and to Oakland, CA where they owned grocery stores. We also operated in and out of Aspen, CO where the Dillion family had homes.

The Oakland trip was what prompted the acquisition of the Sabre. We all wanted to fly jets but given a choice we would have preferred to keep flying the Howard 500. It held 15 passengers comfortably in a 27 ft long cabin, and made a sound on take-off that was wonderful. The P&W CB-16 with two stage superchargers were rated for 2500 hp each with water injection and swung huge 11 ft. 4 bladed props. We would non stop Oakland from Hutchinson and return non stop. With pax the service ceiling was 25,000ft without pax 35,000. At 55% BMEP we flight planned for 260 Kts. The main tanks required 130 octane for takeoff and the rest of the tanks held 100 octane. 1,550 gallons allowed for 2,400 nm.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to crew that airplane. It was probably the highlight my flying career, much more so that the bizjets I subsequently flew.

Back in the middle 1980s I was flying a Falcon 20 load of freight to Toluca, Mexico and saw N277X (Dillon's Howard 500) chained down after being confiscated for flying drugs...."

MICHAEL HOOVER
No Naked Flames
"I rode N446DD (Howard 350 s/n 5696) on her last flight back in August of 1972 in Austin ,Texas.  We lost an engine out of Laredo enroute Dallas in some bad weather and made an ugly landing. We went through about 300-500 feet of overrun, through a chain link boundary fence and down the middle of a residential street.  The main gear folded and a fair portion of the left wing was left down the street.  I had just pumped in 800 gal 100oct before takeoff.  It's incredible, but there was no explosion and no one was injured.  I've still got the Austin American from that day, along with the FAA official accident report.  The airplane was a total write off.  My dad was co-pilot that day.  I was just an enthusiastic passenger.  The airplane had been sitting up for most of a year.  We flew it out of Dee Howard to Laredo (Morgan Aviation) a couple of months before the crash.  Morgan had just completed a 100 hour on it and we all knew the left engine was a high timer.  As I recall, we were on our way to a demo in St. Louis, but it was not meant to be..."

FRANK THERA
Beautiful aircraft..definatly NOT held together with Scotch tape!
"I am attaching some photos for you to use on your Learstar website.  Both are of Learstar #2543.  This airplane is the aircraft that you mention on your Learstar page and refer to as HB-AMM.  My father Frank Thera Jr., flew this airplane (then N23M) for 3M Chairman William McKnight and was the Director of Aviation for 3M when the Learstar was transferred to Geneva in 1960 and became HB-AMM.  It was reregistered as N43M when it returned to the US from Geneva prior to 3M selling it.

The in-flight photo I have attached is of N23M being flown by Frank Thera prior to the Learstar conversion.  At this time it had been converted to a "Wipliner", this conversion was done by Ben Wiplinger, the founder of Wipline Floats.

The second photo was taken March 21, 1957 on the ramp in Lima, Peru.  That's my dad, Frank Thera standing under the nose in the white shirt.  This was shortly after the airplane had been converted to a Learstar.  The most noticeable changes are the Cowlings, Radar Nose, and the Fuselage Fairing in front of the tail.  The itinerary for this particular flight was; Miami, Florida / Panama / Lima, Peru / Santiago, Chile / Buenos Aires, Argentina and back in reverse order, and shows how impressive an executive aircraft the Learstar was.

My dad flew this airplane (based in St. Paul, Minnesota) on flights for Mr. McKnight that ranged from North of Fairbanks Alaska, to as far South as Buenos Aires, Argentina, and regularly between St. Paul, New York, and Miami, where Mr. McKnight had homes.

I got to ride in N23M many times and remember it as an impressive machine, and I still admire its beautiful lines.  Dad does say it was an airplane you had to stay on top of and respect or it could bite you.  He told me he took it to altitude on training and intentionally did a full stall and it immediately rolled inverted (he says he only did that "ONCE").

It is a true shame these fine aircraft have all but disappeared.  They were beautiful machines, flown by true pilots, not computers.  I miss the sweet smell of 100/130 octane exhaust, the bark of short stacks, and the good men that flew these magnificent machines, and who are no longer here. "

EDWARD L GUERRERO
Life working at Mr Howard's
"My introduction to the Howard Aero's organization was in the1960s; fresh out of the United States Air Force. Having a 5 yr background in avionics (mostly Nav-Aids) I was hired to be part of a team headed by an engineer named Roland Corrvieu. Myself, as an avionics engineering technician and my colleagues oversaw the the aircraft electrics engineering/production needs. Due to aircraft delivery scheduling tasks were very demanding but were very exciting and at times rewarding. Rewarding in the sense that it was certainly a labor of love to be around these magnificent birds.

The Bold Howard 500's

Sept 15, 1960 - When you approached the aircraft the boldness of its structure was very evident in the mass which gave you a feeling of it's opulence of muscle even in it's static state. Then the admiration of this craft is further climaxed when you start hearing the cranking of it's CB18's. Then came the belching puffs of smoke from it's stacks continue in giving you a max rush of excitement. (note: flightsimonline.com has an online video of a startup)

My +2 Year Tenure with Howard Aero

On this first day it was spent with the traditional introduction of personnel and facility familiarization. On the walk through of the production areaI was amazed at the quality of organization. Saw 3 or 4 H500 airframe production jigs in various stages of completion.I was impressed with the precision of these construction stations.The workers were constantly aligning the fuselage bodies with transits. All other component stations had the same workmanship. Stepping out to the flight ramp I was met with a bevy of these magnificent flying machines. These aircraft were being readied for flight testing. (note: There is an aerial view of this area [circa 1960] on the flightsimonline.com website)

Since the airframe was designed for pressurization it was constructed according to these capabilities. When the fuselage was completed it was dismounted from the jig then the under- carriage was installed. Rolled to it's next station then the installation of engines, control cabling, electrical wiring, hydraulic systems, pressurization system, instrumentation, all comm and nav-aids units and power generation components. Eventually the wings, control surfaces, flaps (the flaps positioning mechanism [including the cockpit's flaps positioning switches lever] whose engineering design and manufacture was done by Ed Swearingen who had a hanger just across the road from us (Mr. Swearingen at that time was involved with the Queenaire Excalibur and the Piper Comanche twin engine feasibility projects at this time also) were mated/installed.

Next steps: Paint and final component(s) were installed/ tested. Completed aircraft roll-out!

Flight Line - My first aircraft was involved in it's entirety was aircraft #47 (Probably c/n 5500, N749G) which I helped with it's prep prior to it's test flight. With all pre-flights accomplished including several taxing trials #47 was scheduled for it's maiden flight. This was executed near late one afternoon. Work progress was monitored very closely by a visiting customer liaison. Howard Aero was paid by the customer in parcel amounts according to the progress in it's construction stage of completion. To meet those demands at their appropriate times was quite a task for all of us involved. No matter what your job title was everyone pitched-in to have this bird Fly! And fly it did very well!

The Maiden Flights - The pressures build up to this beginning was certainly rewarding. The aircraft to be tested taxied to the end of runway and stayed there forever. We paced the tarmac like expectant fathers. After their long checklist procedure; then we heard the twins revving up all of their 2500 hp on each CB18's. After a lo-o-o-o-ng roll follows ROTATION and then a sweet sounding drone is heard. At that time all of Howard Aero employees had lined up see her spread her wings. This event was always religiously observed which routinely happened many times during my tenure there. All this with Mr. Dee Howard's blessing....What a Guy!"
 

MARK METLZER
Jumping the Lodestar:

 I started skydiving in 1968. Then the big jumpships in regular use were DC 3s, Lockheed Lodestars and Beech 18s. My favorite was the DC 3 followed closely by the Twin Beech and I only jumped the Lodestar when a "3" or Beech was not available. In hindsight I chose wrong. I should have jumped the Lockheed a lot more often as now it has disappeared completely from the skydiving scene. Even in 2005 a few Twin Beeches and DC 3s still haul jumpers. I now long for a Lockheed jump but not one Lodestar jumpship remains.

 To jumpers any and every Lockheed Twin at a DZ was a Lodestar, regardless of what Bill Lear or Dee Howard might have done to it after it left the Burbank factory. They were generally considered good jumpships, faster than the DC 3 and reportedly waaay better on one engine than a max gross Twin Beech. I forget exactly how many jumpers they could normally hold but it was something around 25 or so. Roughly twice the load of a Twin Beech and half the load of a DC 3. Many Lodestars had steps and handrails outside the door so that several jumpers could ride outside the door on jump run (FUN!). This allowed a faster mass exits for large formation work.

 It was a joke in skydiving that the scheduled airlines flew the Lodestars until they were no longer viable, then the non scheds, then the freight haulers, then the dope smugglers and when not even the dope smugglers wanted them, they became jumpships. From the looks of some of the Lodestars I jumped, it seemed like it might actually be true. Still, they were tough planes and I loved them even with their shabby appearance. I knew that beneath the grubby exterior lay a massively overbuilt airframe structure, one that would never fail in flight.

 Everything changed on August 21, 1983, when Lockheed L-18 Learstar crashed. Nine skydivers and two crew members on the Learstar were killed when the aircraft stalled on jump run and plunged 12,000 feet to the ground at Silvana, Washington. Fifteen survivors included 11 who jumped before the plane stalled and four who struggled out as it spiraled into the ground. Horror stories came from survivors who described finally clawing their way to the open door as their struggling friends were pinned to the walls by centrifugal force unable to make it to a door only a few feet away. I and every other skydiver imagined the nightmarish horror: fully equipped with two chutes, plenty of altitude at 12,000 ft, only a few feet from an open door and suddenly escape becomes impossible as the spin develops and you are centrifuged and immobilized, pinned hard against the interior walls.

After that crash jumpers lost their taste for Lodestars. Whether the Learstar had worse spin characteristics than a stock L 18 meant nothing to skydivers as they were all Lodestars and many thought of them now as deathships. Some said the FAA banned all Lodestars from skydiving after the Washington crash but I doubt if that was the case. They never had great economics and with most jumpers now wary of them they faded fast from jumping. The last one I saw at a DZ was derelict at Antioch CA in the early 70s, in bad shape.

 When the annual World Freefall Convention takes place in Rantoul Illinois in early August, there are usually a few nostalgic jumpships. In the recent past they have included Super Connie, Martin 404, C 54G, Beech 18 and DC 3. I long for one more jump in a Lodestar, but it is not to be. I'll have to leave off my glasses and pretend that the Beech 18 is a bit bigger, louder and built in Burbank rather than Wichita. Like squinting and imagining your plain looking date is the prom queen. That's as close as I'll come unfortunately.
 

BILL and JEFF TERRY
Life with Dee, Ed and Bill

I received this e-mail from Jeff Terry on 1st January 2008:

"My father, Bill Terry, worked for both Dee Howard and Ed Swearingen during the 50s and 60s.  He worked at Howard Aero from 1957 thru 1965 on the 250, 350 and 500 projects.  He also worked for Lear in Santa Monica, CA before that and for Swearingen in the late 60s on the Merlin and Metroliner.  All my life I have listened to the stories about those two men (and many others)and their flying machines.  I hope to have many more years of listening to him tell them.

Ed Swearingen was a brilliant engineer.  He was mostly self taught according to dad.  He loved airplanes and probably loved cars even more.  He also even built at least one huge pipe organ for a local church in San Antonio.

In those days everything was done the hard way.  Dad talks of making wooden molds with compound curves to shape 3/4 inch plexiglass for the windows and wind screens.  And building a heating box from plywood and heat lamps in order to heat the Plexiglass to form to the mold.  If you needed a job done sometimes you had to make the tool yourself first since much of this was being done for the first time.  Much of the engineering was done in the shop first, then put on paper.  The countless number of techniques and tools they developed while simply trying to solve problems and get the job done were probably never documented.  Many of these are now obsolete.  Some, I am sure, were stepping stones to even better ways.  But at the time, they got the job done.

My father talks of many men like Landis Carr and Dick Windslow and many others he could name that, like himself, are not mentioned in the history telling of the Howard planes.  These men and many others designed and built these planes and in so doing made themselves a part of aviation history.

There were also some accidents with the Howard planes.  As with any aviation project, testing is a dangerous but necessary job.  And there were some that did not go well.  So, some men even gave it all to further the cause of safety and reliability in the Howard planes.

There were plenty of comical incidents during those early years of executive aviation pioneering.  One such incident when a Howard 350 owned by Pure Oil Company was in for repairs and ready to leave with the president of the company and his mechanic on board.  The pilot accidently fired the JATO bottles while on the runway.  The fifteen foot flames deflected off the pavement and back to the tail section of the plane cutting the entire tail section off like a cutting torch.  The mechanic on board was trying to get the cabin door open to get off the now abbreviated and still rather hot 350. He was a rather balding man and when it was all over, with no one hurt, my father said the mechanic had fingernail marks in his head where the frightened executive had try to claw his way over the top of his mechanic trying to make an even quicker exit.

I am thankful for this website you have dedicated to the history of these planes.  It makes me very proud to read about the planes my father has told me about for many years before the internet.  I am fortunate to have my very own living aviation pioneer still telling these stories to me."