NR16059: "Daily Express" Electra 10E Special
- Besides Earhart's Electra, NR16020, the only other 10E Special [was] the “Daily Express.” Although today largely forgotten, the “Daily Express” is credited with the first commercial, round-trip crossing of the North Atlantic. The aircraft had been delivered to millionaire Harold Vanderbilt as a standard 10E on August 26, 1936. On December 10th England’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry “the woman I love,” and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst let it be known that he would pay handsomely for timely high-quality photographs of George VI’s coronation to be held the following May. In response, Wall Street brokers Ben “Sell ’em short” Smith and Jack Bergen bought Vanderbilt’s 10E and had Lockheed modify it similarly to Amelia Earhart’s long-range Electra, although in this case the fuel capacity would total a whopping 1270 gallons. The ship, registered as NR16059, was christened “Daily Express” after a British newspaper owned by Smith’s friend Lord Beaverbrook. The name also carried the implication of daily express service across the Atlantic. ...
- After its epic transatlantic flight, the Daily Express was sold to the Soviet Union and used in the search for the lost transpolar aviator Sigizmund Levanevski. The airplane’s ultimate fate is unknown.