Lockheed 12A N12EJ, c/n 1203
Photographed at Bartow, FL, 7.4.92
© V.N. Smith, 1992
Available for use without charge if credited
Sources: "Aviator Extraordinary" by Sidney Cotton
"Yerex of TACA" by David Yerex, 1985
Federal Aviation Authority (USA) and Civil Aviation Authority (UK) archives
RAF Museum archives
Public Record Office files
| All dates quoted are dd/mm/yy, not all wartime flights are known | |
| Lockheed 12A - Construction number (c/n) 1203 | |
| 1.10.36 | Became NC16077 to Lockheed Aircraft Corp., Burbank, CA two 450hp P&W Wasp |
| Junior SB2 engines, s/ns 505 and 506 | |
| 3.10.36 | Continental Oil Co., Ponca City, OK |
| 31.10.36 | Accident near Hunt, TX, repaired by makers, total flying time (f/t) 70.50 hours |
| 3.37 | Repaired by Spartan School of Aeronautics, Tulsa, OK |
| 4.37 | RCA radio compass installed by Booth-Henning Inc, Love Field, Dallas, TX |
| 18.6.37 | Inspected at Tulsa, OK, 151.20 hours f/t |
| 9.8.38 | Inspected, 518.05 hours f/t, engine s/ns 491, 520, |
| (Reportedly owned by Herschbach Drilling Co. - not in FAA file) | |
| 24.4.39 | U.S. marks cancelled, sold by Gillies Aviation Corp. to F. Sidney Cotton, |
| London, England, U.S. Export CofA E.4978, 658.49 hours f/t | |
| 28.4.39 | Shipped from U.S.A. on S.S. "Aquitania" |
| Assembled by Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Ltd., Eastleigh, Southampton, painted | |
| light green for camouflage reasons | |
| 11.5.39 | Local flight at Southampton, Cotton, R.H. Niven (also all other pre-war flights |
| unless shown), to Heston same day | |
| 15.5.39 | Became G-AFTL, Certificate of Registration No.9098 to British Airways Ltd. |
| as a cover | |
| Returned to Cunliffe-Owen for installation of two 70 gallon tanks, work | |
| completed by Airwork Ltd., Heston, AUW 11,300lb., range 1,600 miles, fuselage | |
| hatches for F.24 cameras fitted | |
| 8.6.39 | Aeronautical Research & Sales Corporation Ltd., Heston |
| 11.6.39 | Certificate of Validation No. V.195 issued |
| 14.6.39 | 08.57 left Heston for Malta |
| 15.6.39 | Photo sortie over Sicily from Malta |
| 16.6.39 | Malta-Cairo via photo sortie over Dodecanese Islands |
| 19.6.39 | Cairo-Kamaran Island via photo sortie over Massawa, to Aden same day |
| 20.6.39 | Photo sortie over Italian Somaliland, second abortive sortie same day |
| 21.6.39 | Aden-Kamaran via photo sortie over Eritrea |
| 22.6.39 | Kamaran-Atbara via photo sortie over Massawa, to Almaza, Cairo same day, then |
| to Heliopolis, Cairo | |
| 24.6.39 | Heliopolis-Malta via photo sortie over Libyan coast |
| 25.6.39 | Malta-Lyon-Heston |
| 8.7.39 | Le Bourget-Heston-Birmingham-Heston |
| 12.7.39 | Heston-Brussels-Heston |
| 15.7.39 | Local flight at Heston, to Ramsgate next day |
| At this period fitted with Leica cameras in the wings | |
| 26.7.39 | Heston-Templehof, Berlin, returned next day, photo sorties on both flights |
| 28.7.39 | Heston-Brussels, Cotton, with C.G. Grey ("Aeroplane" editor), then to |
| Frankfurt, with Niven, Margaret Gilruth | |
| 29.7.39 | Local flight from Frankfurt, Cotton, with Commandent of Templehof Aerodrome, |
| used to photograph Mannheim area | |
| 31.7.39 | Frankfurt-Brussels, to Heston with Cotton only |
| 5.8.39 | Heston-Lempme (possibly Lympne ?)-Heston |
| 13.8.39 | Heston photo sortie over Jever aerodrome and Wangeroog, then Heston- |
| Le Touquet-Heston | |
| 17.8.39 | Heston-Templehof, returned on 19th, photo sorties on both flights |
| 19.8.39 | Heston-White Waltham-Heston, Niven |
| 22.8.39 | Heston-Berlin, photo sortie |
| 24.8.39 | Berlin-Heston, the last private British aircraft to leave |
| Germany, photo sortie | |
| 26.8.39 | Heston-Paris-Dinard-Heston |
| 27.8.39 | Photo sortie over Nordeney, Heliogoland and Sylt, Cotton, Niven and Miss Pat Martin |
| 29.8.39 | Photo sortie over Wilhelmshaven and Schillig Roads |
| 4.9.39 | Heston-Shoreham-Paris and return, Cotton and Winterbothom |
| 12.9.39 | Photo sortie to west coast of Ireland |
| 15.9.39 | Photo sortie to Flushing and Ymuiden, landed at Farnborough for photo processing |
| 20.9.39 | Heston-Farnborough-Heston, Cotton, also on 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 30th |
| 10.39 | Attached to Photographic Development Unit, Heston, retained it's civil status |
| 2.10.39 | Heston-Farnborough-Heston, F/Lt Niven |
| 7.10.39 | Heston-Farnborough-Heston, Cotton |
| 12.10.39 | Heston-Farnborough-Heston, Wing Commander Cotton, had photographed the |
| Belgian coast | |
| 16.10.39 | Eastleigh-Farnborough-Heston, Cotton |
| 18.10.39 | Heston-Farnborough-Heston, Cotton, also on 20th |
| 9.11.39 | France-Farnborough-Heston, Cotton |
| 13.11.39 | Heston-Farnborough-Heston, Cotton |
| 20.11.39 | Heston-Challerange, France |
| 24.11.39 | Heston-Farnborough-Heston, Cotton, last Farnborough logged movement |
| 27.3.40 | 16.00, Heston via Shoreham to Dieppe (log of Observer Corps, No.19 Centre, Bromley) |
| 12.4.40 | Photo sortie from Heston along English south coast to test efficiency of aircraft |
| reporting system | |
| 18.4.40 | Heston-France |
| 9.5.40 | Coulommiers-Heston |
| 11.5.40 | Meaux-Le Luc |
| 12.5.40 | Le Luc-Corsica-Le Luc |
| 15.5.40 | Le Luc-Coulommiers-Tigreaux-Heston |
| 6.6.40 | Flown to Le Luc, to Hyeres and Ajaccio, Corsica next day |
| 8.6.40 | Ajaccio-Le Luc-Coulommiers |
| 9.6.40 | Coulommiers-Chateauneuf, Orleans |
| 11.6.40 | Chateauneuf-Marseilles |
| 14.6.40 | Marseilles-Chateauneuf-Poitiers-Heston |
| 15.6.40 | Heston-Poitiers |
| 16.6.40 | Poitiers to Fontenoy-le-Conte, to La Rochelle, Le Luc, Poitiers and Fontenoy |
| 17.6.40 | Fontenoy-Chateaurroux-Bordeaux-Fontenoy-Jersey |
| 18.6.40 | Jersey-Heston |
| 25.8.40 | Certificate of Validation expired |
| 19.9.40 | 22.55, badly damaged when a parachuted mine hit the hangar at Heston |
| Shipped to Lockheed, Burbank for rebuilding, sold | |
| 21.11.42 | Became NX21707 to Lowell Yerex, 9 Rockefeller Plaza, NYC for a ferry flight |
| 21.11.42 | Flown from Burbank to Brownsville, TX |
| 24.11.42 | U.K. registration changed to Lowell Yerex, Tegucigalpa, Honduras |
| 5.1.43 | Became VP-TAI to British West Indian Airways, U.K. marks cancelled on the |
| same date | |
| 12.44 | Withdrawn from service for major overhaul in USA |
| 30.1.45 | Weighed at Lockheed factory for Balance Report |
| 10.4.48 | Sold to Dan Hartman Airways Inc, Harrisonburg, VA, became N1161V |
| 20.4.48 | Dan Hartman and W. Clayton Lemon, Roanoke, VA |
| c5.48 | Trinidad marks cancelled |
| 21.10.48 | Morrison Drilling Co. Inc., El Dorado, KS for $20,000 |
| 12.7.50 | Old Dominion Box Co. Inc., Charlotte, NC |
| 6.12.52 | CofA renewed, 4,286.15 hours f/t |
| 4.12.53 | CofA renewed, 4,396.00 hours f/t |
| 8.2.55 | CofA renewed, 4,446.10 hours f/t |
| 15.3.55 | Gregory-Poole Equipment Co., Raleigh, NC |
| 12.9.55 | W. Clayton Lemon, Roanoke, VA |
| 26.10.55 | The Babb Co. Inc., Newark, NJ |
| 1.3.56 | CofA renewed, 4,546.50 hours f/t |
| 29.5.58 | M.M. Sundt Construction Co., Tucson, AZ (registered 23.7.59) |
| 14.6.60 | Hudgin Airservice, Tucson, AZ |
| 21.10.60 | Place & Place, Architects, Tucson, AZ |
| 23.3.63 | Arthur Eugene Magee, Tucson, AZ |
| 24.2.64 | Smyer Aircraft Co. Inc., Arkansas City, KA |
| 25.5.69 | George D. Rice and Dolores A. Rice, Corona, CA, approved for dropping |
| skydivers | |
| Landed wheels up (or u/c collapsed ?) in California | |
| 10.1.74 | Arthur E. "Art" Scholl, dba Art Scholl Aviation, Riverside, CA, damage |
| repaired | |
| Fitted with 3-bladed Hartzell propellers, approved 18.4.74 | |
| Used in Warner Bros film "Doc Savage", also in a NBC film on Amelia Earhart, | |
| CBS "Spencer's Pilots" series and an EMI TV Howard Hughes film | |
| 19.1.78 | Transferred to Special Purposes CofA, 5,994.5 hours f/t (possibly for |
| testing Nav Flite II autopilot installation) | |
| 27.4.78 | Reverted to Standard CofA, 6,011.2 hours f/t |
| by 5.80 | Based at Rialto, CA |
| 1.83 | Wind damage to tail section repaired |
| 24.4.87 | Judith A. Scholl, dba Art Scholl Aviation, Rialto, CA (after Art |
| Scholl's death while filming for "Top Gun") | |
| 13.3.90 | Blackacre Land Co., Livingston, MT |
| 10.7.90 | Steve R. Oliver and Suzanne Asbury-Oliver, Forest Grove, OR |
| 29.10.90 | Became N12EJ, same owners |
| 11.3.91 | Seen at Space Centre Executive Airport, Titusville, FL, still marked N1161V |
| 4.92 | Seen at Barstow, FL as N12EJ |
| 7.2001 | Seen at Oshkosh, WI |