Photographed at Lockheed Factory, Burbank, California, USA, ca. 1929, by Norman Loop
05/22/2005. Remarks by
Pat Loop: "This aircraft initially sold to General Tire & Rubber Co., and set an east-west transcontinental record in May 1930. Then it was sold to Gilmore Oil Co. in 1932, flown by Roscoe Turner, it was named after Turner's lion."
(
John Tarvin Memorial Collection)
Original photo and caption from unknown source, with some modern clarifications in brackets:
This is a photo of Col. Roscoe Turner (nearest the plane in a white shirt), pilot of the Gilmore Oil Company plane. The lion cub (named Gilmore, lying in front of the plane) was the company mascot which went on all publicity flights with Colonel Turner. (Gilmore and Turner flew together for only nine months before the courageous cub grew too big. Despite his short career, Gilmore logged over 25,000 miles (40,233 kilometers) in the air.)
Colonel Turner decided to fly non-stop from Canada to Mexico, a feat never before attempted. He landed at the airport on Sea Island (now the location of Vancouver International Airport) to prepare for the flight to Mexico. However, he found the only runway at the airport too short for his plane when loaded to capacity with fuel.
He was told of a farm field in nearby Delta that would be suitable. He flew into the field unannounced and looked things over for take off the next morning.
As it so happened, a crew of workmen had just completed coiling up a hay crop (gathering and arranging hay into stacks) and he suggested that if one of the rows of hay could be moved about twenty feet, if would allow for a safe take off.
The Imperial Oil truck from Ladner came out to the farm house in Delta to fuel up the plane. The pilot and the lion cub spent the night at a farm house in Delta and at 7am the next morning took off for Mexico. Colonel Turner landed safely after twelve hours (and forty-seven minutes) of non-stop flying, at his destination (Agua Caliente).
(NOTES: The original photo caption stated the flight took place in 1926, but it took place July 16, 1930. While at Sea Island, Vancouver departure has been identified in other sources of information, there is evidence corroborating the report above that the non-stop flight from Canada to Mexico departed from a field in Delta. Delta is across the Fraser River from Sea Island. A similar photograph in the Delta Museum and Archives depicts Colonel Roscoe Turner with the lion cub on a field in Delta before their take off.)
