A rare Lockheed 12A
Electra Junior, one of what is believed to be less than 10 flying
throughout the world, will be on display for the first time ever this
year at AeroShell Square. The sleek, twin-engine aircraft, N-18137,
serial number 1229, rolled off the assembly line at Lockheed’s
Burbank, California, plant in 1937 and was delivered to Continental
Airlines. Three years later it was sold to Transcontinental and Western
Air (later Trans World Airlines, or TWA). Paul E. Richter, Jr., one of
TWA’s three founding fathers and executive vice president, did the
initial test flight before purchase and then flew it to TWA headquarters
in Kansas City.
Richter went on to pilot
the Lockheed extensively as an executive transport in the early- to
mid-1940s. N-18137 also was TWA’s high-altitude research lab flown by
notable pilot Tommy Tomlinson.
Richter’s daughter,
Ruth Richter Holden, is an EAA member from San Luis Obispo, California
Chapter 170. She acquired the airplane last year and was persuaded to
bring it to Oshkosh.
Nineteen owners and 60
years after TWA sold the Junior, a series of coincidences led Ruth to
acquire Ellie (LE), the airplane her father flew.
It began with a website
Ruth created, www.paulrichtertwalegend.com, to post information about
her father gleaned from his personal papers. Enter Connie Bowlin, EAA
Warbirds of America board member, who attempted to contact Ruth through
the website in early 2005 looking for facts about a Lockheed 12A she and
her husband, Ed, had up for sale. Connie had information that the plane
was owned by TWA years ago.
Despite some initial
resistance - "I was so busy that I actually ignored her for some
time," Ruth said – she finally spoke with Connie and in no time
determined that this was in fact the same airplane her father flew. Ruth
also confirmed through her father’s logbooks that she was a passenger
in the plane as a child, on a 1945 flight from TWA headquarters in
Kansas City to Washington, D.C.
During a phone call, it
finally hit her: "I don’t know why I am trying to help you sell
this airplane," Ruth told Connie. "I have to buy this
airplane!"
Ruth came to the
conclusion that she needed to do whatever it took to buy it. "I
mortgaged the house, sold my first born child, and decided to let the
county bury me," she joked. The deal closed in June 2005, and the
next several months were spent restoring the airplane to how it looked
during its TWA days in the 1940s.
Ruth, who owns a Piper
Warrior and has 1,500 hours of pilot experience, was not qualified to
fly Ellie so she enlisted her friend, American Eagle pilot Curt
"Rocky" Walters, to fly her back to SLO from Georgia. A check
pilot flew part way to ensure Rocky learned her subtle nuances.
He is now a part owner of
Ellie as well as PIC. Meanwhile, Ruth gets plenty of right-seat
time and aims to fly Ellie herself someday. She has logged about
eight hours multi-engine and five hours of tailwheel time.
