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Lockheed Model 12A Electra Junior, G-AFTL, Z9D_8813 copy

IWM Duxford July 8 2023

 

Lockheed L-12A Electra Junior G-AFTL

Built 1936

 

Previous registrations include

NC16007NX21707

VP-TAI

N1161V

N12EJ

 

(I believe the following to be accurate)

 

G-AFTL is a very historic and important aircraft it spent from 1936 to 1939 with several companies in the U.S.A, before in 1939 being exported to the U.K. Where it was registered as a cover as G-AFTL with British Airways.

On arriving in the U.K it was rebuilt by Cunliffe-Owen with long range fuel tanks and fuselage hatches with F.24 cameras.

It was then used on several photo reconnaissance mission as far afield as the Middle east but primarily over pre-war Germany.

Damaged in 1940 after an air raid it was shipped back to Lockheed for in Burbank for rebuilding.

It then spent many years with different owners until 2015 when it was due to be sold to a French owner but it then remained in pieces in a hangar at Jefferson County Airport owned three French antique dealers. The history until 2022 remains a mystery to me, until it arrived at Sywell for restoration for Fighter Aviation Engineering, Dunmow finally flying again in spring of 2023.

 

 

Training/Practice flight

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Uploaded on June 9, 2023
Taken on June 8, 2023