Wood Materials

Amelia Earhart’s Red Lockheed Vega
Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Introduced in 1927, the Lockheed Vega was the first product of designer Jack Northrop and Allan Loughead's Lockheed Aircraft Company. Sturdy, roomy, streamlined and fast, the innovative Vega became favored by pilots seeking to set speed and distance records. It sported a cantilever (internally braced) one-piece spruce wing and a spruce veneer monocoque fuselage (a molded shell without internal bracing), which increased overall strength and reduced weight.