Robert J Serling - The Electra Story: The Dramatic History of Aviations Most Controversial Airliner

The Electra Story

Robert J. Serling

Robert J. Serling 1963

Robert J. Serling has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

First published in 1963 by Doubleday & Company, Inc.

This edition published in 2018 by Endeavour Media Ltd.

DEDICATION

To the memory of the crew, Braniff International Airways Flight 542, September 29, 1959:

Captain Wilson Stone

First Officer Dan Hollowell

Second Officer Roland Longhill

Stewardess Avilyn Harrison

Stewardess Betty Rusch

Stewardess Leona Winkler

And the crew of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, March 17, 1960:

Captain Edgar LaParle

First Officer Joseph Mills

Flight Engineer Arnold Kowal

Stewardess Constance Nutter

Stewardess Barbara Schreiber

Flight Attendant Mitchell Foster

In life, they shared a common love of the air and pride in its daily conquest.

In death, they shared the ultimate truth of aviation that from tragedy stems the inevitable reform and progress which must be part of that conquest.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

No other aircraft in the history of United States commercial aviation has flown through more misfortune than the Lockheed Electra. Twice in a period of six months the big turboprop airliner disintegrated in flight, from unknown causes. Public confidence in the airplane all but disintegrated, too, and demands that it be grounded became a chorus.

The twin tragedies shocked the entire aviation community. The Electra had been carefully designed and tested. It had met all the safety standards then established by the government. Yet a fatal flaw went undetected and was to claim ninety-seven lives before it was found and corrected.

I first met this gallant ship in the South China Sea during the winter of 1959, when I boarded a Cathay Pacific Airlines flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok. The pilots had just checked out in the brand-new Electra and were the happiest crew with whom I have ever flown. Little did I realize, as we flew confidently over the troubled landscape of Indochina and the offshore islands, that several months later the Electra was to be the center of a bitter controversy that was to shake aviation to the very roots of its wings.

The experience of the Electra is a fascinating chapter in the story of flight. It involved serious structural failures that required an immense government-industry effort to resolve. Many millions of dollars were expended, and every available scientific and technical resource was employed including the cooperation of the best minds of various competing aircraft manufacturers. The success of this effort is a testament to the vitality of American aviation, its unity in crisis. It also extends the promise that our civil air fleet will continue in a position of world leadership.

To me, the heroes of this remarkable book are a courageous captain of industry, the late Robert Gross of Lockheed, and an equally courageous general in government, Elwood R. Quesada, my predecessor in office, plus, of course, the airplane itself.

One of aviations greatest assets has always been its ability to profit from past mistakes. A great deal was learned from the Electra, for example, concerning the effects of high speeds on conventional aircraft design, the need to apply fail-safe design philosophy in new areas, and new techniques of computerized stress analysis. These lessons already have proved valuable and will help assure future operational safety as commercial aviation prepares to expand into an era of supersonic flight in the 1970s.

Throughout most of the heated Electra controversy, my role was that of private citizen and interested bystander, although as a Lockheed test pilot during 1942-43 I had more than just a passing interest. Everyone in aviation feels a personal blow when the logic and symmetry of a beautiful airplane are shattered.

The tremendous responsibilities of weighing and deciding the Electras fate were borne by Quesada. His conduct during the entire affair was a study in undaunted leadership, and his unflinching judgments were ultimately proved correct by the course of events.

One of my first acts after President Kennedy told me he wanted me to take up the FAA task in January, 1961, was to test-hop a newly-modified Electra myself at the Lockheed plant in Burbank, California. Since I would face a questioning and worried Senate for confirmation, it seemed prudent to have firsthand knowledge and personal conviction, whether for or against this airplane on public trial. Lockheeds fine test pilots had, of course, put the airplane to the real test far beyond anything I was then prepared to do but there is a great satisfaction to a pilot in having actually flown the aircraft under conditions of more stress than commercial service would impose. It was, in any case, a reassuring experience. I was impressed with the great strength, the power and the responsiveness of the airplane. Perhaps it was in some measure a subjective reaction, but I have had no reservations in giving the plane my full endorsement since that time.

The FAAs confidence in the aircraft is further reflected by the fact that we purchased an Electra for the Agencys own training fleet. Oddly enough, the Agencys aircraft was the one used in the final evaluation of the modified Electra, a grueling exercise in which the aircraft was flown far beyond its operational limits, in an area of high turbulence, with portions of the structure deliberately weakened to test the effectiveness of the modifications. I hasten to say I was not aboard those flights! The Electra finished with flying colors, and there was general agreement that the plane was ready to resume its role as the airlines premier turboprop.

The success of the Electra in commercial service since that time has vindicated those who continued to support the airplane in its dark hours. However, there remains even today some misunderstanding of the aircraft and its airworthiness. This book should help dispel this.

I have long considered Robert Serling a fine wordsmith as well as one of the best aviation reporters in the business, and one of the most responsible as well as stimulating. This carefully prepared account of the Electra controversy is an outstanding example of his reporting ability.

Mr. Serlings sense of the dramatic and his ability to translate the most technical subjects into the kings English should assure this book wide readership outside the aviation community as well as in. I hope so, for a great deal of educational work needs to be done if aviation is to realize its full potential. We all of us in aviation must impress upon those who dont fly (approximately per cent of the population) that government and industry are working constantly to make air travel safer and more efficient each year. The record of United States commercial aviation is good, but nobody in the industry should complacently consider it good enough. Our goal is swift, safe passage for all who fly anywhere, any time, year in, year out. We are indebted to Mr. Serling for helping us all to understand the perils as well as the great progress and prospects of aviation.

Najeeb E. Halaby

Administrator, Federal Aviation Agency

AUTHORS PREFACE

This is the story of an airliner. The most praised and pilloried, the most damned and defended commercial transport in the history of commercial aviation.

One pilot I talked to called it absolutely the greatest plane I ever flew and the safest in the air today, including even the jets.

Another pilot told me, I wouldnt fly the damned thing from Idlewild to Newark.

Which may give you a general idea of what you are about to read.

One person wrote this book; many helped, including those who quite naturally would have preferred that it not be written. I refer specifically to public relations officials and engineers of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and the Allison Division of General Motors. It is to their everlasting credit that in no way whatsoever did they attempt to censor the product, refuse cooperation, or duck a single question. They have not only my utmost gratitude but also my heartfelt admiration.