05/31/2022. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "First flown early in 1940, the Lockheed Model 18 was designed as a seventeen-passenger transport. Powered by two Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial engines, the Lodestar proved to be among the fastest aircraft of its class. The USAAC interest crystallized in April 1941 into a contract for one C-56. After the USA became involved in WW II in December 1941, numerous commercial transports, including Lodestars, were requisitioned from US domestic operators and pressed into service with the USAAF under various designations in the C-56 to C-60 range.
Under the designation C-60A Lodestar, 325 eighteen-seat paratroop transports were ordered directly for the USAAF: 52 C-60As (serialed 42-32181 to 42-32232), 46 C-60A-1s (42-55845 to 42-55890) and 227 C-60A-5s (42-55891 to 42-56084 and 43-16433 to 43-16465). However, one C-60A-1 (42-55860) was modified during construction to test a hot-air de-icing system. It was designated Model 218-56 by Lockheed and XC-60B by the USAAF.
Factory-fresh, the pictured aircraft was selected for a photo shoot. Assigned to the 837th Navigation Training Squadron at the USAAF Navigation School, Hondo Army Air Field, Texas, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair when it ground-looped on landing at Hondo on October 30, 1943."
