Lockheed Altair No. 9054

The U.S. Navy Lockheed XRO-1 Altair (BuNo 9054) in 1932. The metal fuselage-wooden winged Altair carried the distinction of being the first aircraft with retractable gear operated by the U.S. Navy. It was delivered to the Navy in October 1931 and was allocated as the personal transport of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (at that time David Ingalls), based at Naval Air Station Anacostia, Washington D.C. The aircraft appeared at NACA Langley in the summer of 1932.

Sample machine on this illustration is the command plane of David S. Ingalls, assistant Sec. Nav. Bureau of Aeronautics. Basic airplane color is Admiral Blue with wings and horizontal tail in silver. Top of the wings was yellow. Golden stripe was used over the engine cowling and fuselage and US NAVY letters on fuselage was also gold color. Numbers and letters on vertical tail was black and white.

Srecko Bradic