Review by Martin Koenigsberg
A lovely little book about a lovely little airplane. In this book, Rob J. M. Mulder, a writer, and publisher of aviation titles tell the story of one particular transitional Lockheed type of the interwar period in one particular market. The first of several Lockheed designs to wear the name Orion (the Cold War ASW stalwart comes to mind), the Model 9B was a single-engine monoplane that could carry a few passengers and mailbags- but at about twice the speed that its competitors were offering.
When most other civilian aviation was taking place at 140Km/h, the Orions were flying at 260-280Km/h! Mulder shows how this aircraft changed civilian aviation in Switzerland, whose Swissair bought two airframes for flights to Vienna and other European metropolises. Then at the end of the period, when war clouds were gathering- the aircraft was sold to Republican Spain and used as Communications types until the end of the Spanish Civil War. After all my reading on pivotal mass-produced warbirds, it was nice to go deep on a peaceful type and an airline I remember flying in the 1970s.
The 120-page book is chock full of prose history and technical passages, tonnes of cool black-and-white pics of the type and early European civil aviation, and great color plates of photos of extant models in museums and color scheme drawings. The aircraft was flown in a really distinctive scheme (until the more muted military paint in the SCW), and the book does it justice with almost every photo. It’s also a great resource for learning about early Swiss commercial aviation and that of Europe in general.
Compared to today’s world of Airbus and Boeing Jumbo Jets and 7X7s, it was a quaint little business run on a shoestring but it was all-important in developing the idea of flying from one city to another. I found myself wishing I could show the book off to my father who was a real fan of the early Lockheed planes, making many models of this period. I think he would have enjoyed it as much as I did.
There are no adult themes or graphic injury passages—all the crashes seemed relatively benign—so this is a fine read for the Junior Reader over about 11/12 years with an interest in aviation. For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast, it’s a mixed bag. Not much for the gamer, although a model of this aircraft might make a good terrain piece or objective for an SCW game.
The Modeler is the real winner here, in fact with how much a good kit and aftermarket enhancements cost, spending a little bit more to have EVERY possible resource on this type just makes sense. The scheme is so distinctive though, and there is so much good history to mine for cool dioramas—that I can see this being required reading if you want to build Lockheed 9Bs. The Military Enthusiast gets a lot of information about interwar aviation in Europe, setting the scene for WWII in the air. It’s also interesting to read about Republican Aircraft that were not purchased directly from the Soviets. This is a good book about a narrow topic, covered with scholarly care and great images.
