The Stockton Field Aviation Museum, at Stockton Municipal Airport, roughly 100 kilometres south of Sacramento, California, is quickly becoming a haven for Lockheed’s famous family of twin engine, radial-powered aircraft. A C-60 Lodestar and a second PV-2 Harpoon (see page 36) will soon call the museum home.
The Lodestar (serial 2322, NC6166), a Model 18-56 originally powered by two Wright R-1820-87 engines and one of just 36 built, has not flown for several years and is currently sitting at Yolo County Airport, just to the west of Sacramento. It is a Howard 250 conversion with, among other modifications, an extended nose and a far more comfortable interior. Taigh Ramey, principal of Vintage Aircraft, a specialist Beech 18 business based at Stockton (see Flightpath Vol.29, No.2), is leading the charge to…