|
Description
| Manufacturer: | Lockheed | |
| Base model: | VZ-10 | |
| Designation: | VZ-10 | |
| Nickname: | Hummingbird | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1956-1962 | |
| Basic role: | VTOL Research | |
Specifications
| Not Yet Available |
Known serial numbers
Recent comments by our visitors
| Otha H Vaughan Huntsville, AL | To Don Danielson and or Mike Sutton:
I am researching the life of Dr James Frank Sutton who worked on the Lockheed Hummingbird and would like to correspond with either of you about Frank's work. Frank was my mechanical engineering Professor at Clemson College in the 50'swhen I was working toward my Masters. 10/23/2008 @ 19:38 [ref: 22909] |
| Donna Watkins Marietta, GA | I also was a 6 year old kid playing in the yard and saw the plane go down. I ran across the street to the neighbor, Bill Pressley, that was cutting grass and I told him what I saw. He called and reported it, as he was a firefighter for Lockheed. It did go down in Cobb County and it seemed like it was in a unfinished subdivision. I remember going to the site to see it the day after the crash and a few times after that just to see if we could find anything. 04/26/2008 @ 03:52 [ref: 20722] |
| Buck , GA | My dad worked in the security end of things at Lockheed. I remember him working the Hummingbird crash. (I could have sworn it crashed it in Paulding County, GA, but apparently my memory fails me. I've since read it crashed in Cobb County.) In any event, it crashed near a site favored by moonshiners, and I vividly recall the chatter among the investigators that the plane may have been mistaken for the dreaded revenuers--and shot down!
True or not, it made for some interesting conversations around the dinner table. 02/02/2008 @ 17:04 [ref: 19517] |
| tamara , CA | I have a Lockheed Stockholders Newsletter from March 1962 that discusses the Hummingbird and has an artist rendering of the plane. It also has a blurb about the f-104 with artist rendering. I am interested in selling the newsletter. Does something like this have much value? 08/20/2007 @ 15:19 [ref: 17694] |
| Steve Williams Sun City, CA | I was stationed in Oklahoma City, in 1964. My neighbor, Bill Ingraham, was the pilot that was killed in the fatal crash of the first Hummingbird. I would like to hear from someone that knew Bill and the details of the crash. Also He had a son about three years old (In 1964) His son was absolutely facinated with aircraft. Bill procured a cardboard "cockpit" and that 3 yr. old would spend half of his time playing with it. I sure would like to contact Bill's widow and/or son. 07/09/2007 @ 10:29 [ref: 17049] |
| Terry Doherty Hickory, NC | I worked my way through Ga Tech at Lockheed-Georgia until I graduated in 1968. One of my fondest memories was of the day I watched the Hummingbird taxi out toward the runway. I was driving to the flightline and just had to stop and stare! The VZ-10 was stopped on the taxi-way. The Delta Dagger chase plane was in takeoff position on the runway. The Dagger started his takeoff roll just as the VZ-10 vertically rose from the concrete, turned 90 degrees so both were headed (East). Wham! Bang! Zip! The VZ-10 was a small DOT on the horizon and the Dagger was just lifting off the end of the runway! VERY IMPRESSIVE! I'm 61 now; was 23 then. Still one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. 06/13/2006 @ 11:42 [ref: 13513] |
| Daniel Salem, AL | I was a kid playing in the yard just off of canton hwy with others kids in the neighborhood when we saw a plane go up and then started to come down weird, like a bird when shot at then the smoke from over the tree line and we knew what had happened.
For the next several hours - all kids of emergency equipment went by.. 06/11/2006 @ 10:04 [ref: 13495] |
| Carl Schmidt Cincinnati, OH | I hired into Lockheed-Georgia Material & Process (M&P) Engineering in late 1964, after being a welding engineer for North American Aviation on the XB-70 project in Palmdale, CA. The Hummingbird, assembled by welding in the "garage" next to our office, did not have funding for M&P support, so I spent a lot of my lunch hours, coffee breaks (and un-vouchered time) advising on how to weld the very thin skin (Inco 718, as I recall). We used helium torch gas as on the XB-70 and X-15, rather than more conventional argon that had been planned; this produced much higher joint strengths and less distortion Weld quality was excellent. I never thought to ask whether the skin thickness was adequate to support the aircraft's load requirements; I've often wondered about that. 02/06/2006 @ 06:25 [ref: 12424] |
| Doug Danielson Decatur, GA | Mike Sutton, I worked with your grandfather, Frank Sutton, and really admired him. I worked with him for about a year as a student at Ga. Tech around 1978. He had just retired from Lockheed and was working on the Transette at GT, and I worked on that project for him. I later went to work at Lockheed and learned more about him there. I still tell people about one of the best engineers I ever knew, and that is after 25 years of working at this point. I think I still have some neat pictures of the project with Doc Sutton included. Get in touch with me and I will try to get you some of the keep sakes.
Good luck, Doug Danielson Decatur, GA 10/03/2005 @ 02:55 [ref: 11392] |
| Mike Sutton Woodstock, GA | My grandfather, Frank J. Sutton, was the man who designed this aircraft, to my knowledge. He was the Chief Engineer at Lockheed during this time from what I can gather from my dad. We have a few bits of information from it, including a wonderful bronze mantelpeice of the Hummingbird as a memento. 09/18/2005 @ 04:51 [ref: 11265] |
Recent photos uploaded by our visitors
