Lockheed Altair

The Lockheed Altair was a single-engined sport aircraft built by Lockheed Aircraft in the 1930s as a development of the Sirius. It was the first Lockheed aircraft, and one of the first designs anywhere, with a fully retractable undercarriage, which began as a retractable wing Lockheed designed for the Sirius at Charles Lindbergh's request, although Lindbergh bought a standard Sirius. The first Altair, converted from a Sirius, flew in September 1930; four more were converted and six were built new, by Lockheed, the Detroit Aircraft Corporation and AiRover. The prototype went to the US Army Air Corps as the Y1C-25, a second served as the Y1C-23 staff transport, the Navy had one as the XRO-1, and the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun used two as fast passenger and cargo aircraft. Altairs flew record-breaking long-range flights, among them Charles Kingsford Smith's Lady Southern Cross, which made the first flight from Australia to the United States in 1934 and disappeared in November 1935 on an England to Australia record attempt.