Allan Haines Lockheed (né Allan Haines Loughead; January 20, 1889 – May 26, 1969) was an American aviation engineer and businessman. He formed the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company along with his brother, Malcolm Loughead, which became Lockheed Corporation.
Loughead changed his name during 1934 to Allan Lockheed, the phonetic spelling of his family name, to avoid spelling confusion. He went on to begin two other aircraft manufacturing companies in the 1930s. He focused on real estate between the 1940s to 1960s.
Loughead was born in Niles, California, on the 20th of January 1889.
Flora Haines Loughead was a well-known novelist and journalist. The Loughead brothers attended elementary school only, but were mechanically inclined from an early age. He worked as a mechanic in San Francisco during the early 1900s. By 1909, he was driving race cars.
Early experience with aviation
Loughead began his aviation experience with the Curtiss Model D as an employee for James E. Plew. Allan and Malcolm Loughead installed a 2-cylinder, 12 hp motor on the Montgomery glider with Victor as engineer. During 1910, he became a pilot.
The Curtiss pusher was powered by a 30 hp engine.
When Plew withdrew from aviation after two of his planes were wrecked and a student killed, Loughead became a flight instructor with the International Aeroplane Manufacturing Company in Chicago, and put on aerial exhibitions for 25% of the gate receipts. Later he said: "I was really rich the first week out. I made something like $850." During an exhibition at Hoopeston, Illinois, his rain-soaked airplane failed to climb enough and was entangled in telephone wires. At that point, he decided to build a better aircraft so he could collect all of the gate receipts.
Loughead returned to San Francisco in 1912 and went to work as an auto mechanic. There, he and his brother Malcolm spent their spare time building a three-place seaplane to operate from San Francisco Bay. They constantly ran out of money until they convinced Max Mamlock of the Alco Cab Company to invest $4,000 in the plane. Finally, after 18 months, their Model G was christened the ALCO NO. 1 in 1913, and Allan Loughead made a successful flight in it from the waters of the Golden Gate entrance to San Francisco Bay.
That first flight was on June 15, 1913. The flight reached an altitude of 300 feet and a speed of 60 miles per hour. Allan then returned to take Malcolm for a ride. The Model G made three flights that day.
Allan Lockheed recalled in 1942 that the Model G was built mostly with hand tools and called the aircraft "one of the first successful three place tractor seaplanes in the United States."
While the Model G, the first plane to bear the Loughead (Lockheed) name, was far ahead of its time, few would pay $10 to fly in it. Mamlock soon lost his enthusiasm for aviation and seized the plane. He told the Lougheads if they wanted it back, they would have to repay his $4,000. Consequently, in the hopes of striking it rich, the Loughead brothers spent two unsuccessful years prospecting in California's gold country.
With the financial aid of Alaskan pioneer Paul Meyer, Allan and Malcolm Loughead bought the Model G back in 1915 and opened a flying concession at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. In five months, they took 600 paying passengers aloft and netted $4,000. Henry Ford was one person who turned down a ride, saying, "I would not take even a straightaway flight four feet above the bay in anybody's aeroplane for all the money in California."
In early 1916, the Loughead brothers moved the operation to Santa Barbara, where they were swamped by people wanting to make their first flight. In addition, they made charter flights to the off-shore islands, and local movie companies used the plane to take aerial footage.
Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company
In 1916, the brothers founded Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara to build a 10-place, twin-engined F-1 flying boat for their aerial sightseeing business. They began construction in a rented garage, which attracted the attention of 20-year-old John K. "Jack" Northrop. Northrop was skilled in drafting and mathematics, and the Lougheads employed him in designing the F-1.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Allan Loughead went to Washington, D.C. to get a Navy contract to build the F-1 in quantity. The Navy informed Loughead that it would purchase only previously approved designs. Later, Loughead said of this visit, "Down there I lost all the patriotism I ever had." He did return with a contract to build two Curtiss flying boats and an agreement for the Navy to test the F-1.
When the F-1 was completed, Allan Loughead and a crew of three flew it from Santa Barbara to San Diego in April 1918, setting a record of 181 minutes for the 211-mile flight. After the Navy completed its tests, the F-1 was returned to Loughead Aircraft and was then converted into the F-lA land-plane. Loughead hoped to interest the Army in it as a long-range bomber or transport plane. The war ended before its conversion was completed.