World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseL-18 Lodestar passenger aircraft were built upon a batch of L-14 Super Electra aircraft which had been returned by American airline company Northwest Airlines to the Lockheed Corporation after a series of crashes with that batch of aircraft. They were lengthened by 1.5 meters to add two more rows of seating, but they found their potential buyers in the United States had already ordered the DC-3 passenger aircraft from their competitor Douglas Aircraft Company. With 625 L-18 Lodestar aircraft on-hand by Mar 1940, Lockheed looked abroad for sales. 29 of them were sold to the Netherlands for use in the Dutch East Indies, 21 to South African Airways, 12 to Trans-Canada Air Lines, 9 to British Overseas Airways Corporation, and several to the Royal New Zealand Air Force under Lend-Lease terms. In late 1940 and early 1941, as the United States military began expanding in anticipation of war, both the Army and the Navy purchased L-18 Lodestar aircraft for transport duties. The US Army operated them under the designations of C-56, C-57, C-59, C-60; the US Navy operated them under the designation of R-50, with 1 R5O-1 aircraft later transferred to the United States Coast Guard and 35 R50-6 aircraft (originally US Army Air Force C-60A-5-LO aircraft) later transferred to the United States Marine Corps. After WW2, many of the military L-18 Lodestar aircraft returned to civilian service, mostly as executive transports.

SPECIFICATIONS

C-60

Machinery	Two Pratt & Whitney Hornet S1C3-G engines rated at 1,050hp each
Crew	3
Span	19.96 m
Length	15.19 m
Height	3.60 m
Wing Area	51.20 m²
Weight, Empty	5,440 kg
Weight, Loaded	7,940 kg
Speed, Maximum	426 km/h
Service Ceiling	7,740 m
Range, Normal	2,740 km

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