AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 91 / 232

Plate 91 of 232 · Between the wars · Six-passenger twin-engined light transport and executive aircraft

Lockheed 12A Electra Junior

Lockheed 12A Electra Junior (1936), painted as G-AFTL, c/n 1203, built at Burbank in 1936 and first registered NC16077 to the Continental Oil Company, bought in April 1939 by Sidney Cotton and registered in Britain to British Airways Ltd as cover for clandestine photographic flights over Germany and Italy for the Secret Intelligence Service, with extra fuel tanks and hidden F.24 cameras fitted by Cunliffe-Owen, the last British civil aircraft to leave Berlin before the war, on 24 August 1939; damaged by a parachute mine at Heston in 1940, rebuilt at Burbank and flown for decades in the Caribbean and the United States, restored at Sywell, re-registered G-AFTL in 2022, flying again since March 2023 and based at IWM Duxford: Lockheed’s six-passenger all-metal low-wing light transport of 49 ft 6 in span, a scaled-down Model 10 Electra with twin fins and rudders and two 450 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior radials, shown standing tail-down on its main wheels and tail wheel as restored: pale cream overall with a teal nose cap, anti-glare band and lower nose, a cream flash on each side of the nose carrying a teal lightning bolt that runs aft as a cheat line, stepping up under the rear window to run beneath a black ‘G-AFTL’, teal cowling rings and propeller hubs, grey propellers with white and grey tips, ‘G-AFTL’ above and below the wings and the Lockheed star badge on each fin (shape from the-blueprints.com Model 12-A three-view, cross-checked against a second published three-view, with the details following photographs of G-AFTL at Duxford in 2023 and at RIAT in 2025).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-AFTL, c/n 1203, built at Burbank in 1936 and first registered NC16077 to the Continental Oil Company, bought in April 1939 by Sidney Cotton and registered in Britain to British Airways Ltd as cover for clandestine photographic flights over Germany and Italy for the Secret Intelligence Service, with extra fuel tanks and hidden F.24 cameras fitted by Cunliffe-Owen, the last British civil aircraft to leave Berlin before the war, on 24 August 1939; damaged by a parachute mine at Heston in 1940, rebuilt at Burbank and flown for decades in the Caribbean and the United States, restored at Sywell, re-registered G-AFTL in 2022, flying again since March 2023 and based at IWM Duxford: Lockheed’s six-passenger all-metal low-wing light transport of 49 ft 6 in span, a scaled-down Model 10 Electra with twin fins and rudders and two 450 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior radials, shown standing tail-down on its main wheels and tail wheel as restored: pale cream overall with a teal nose cap, anti-glare band and lower nose, a cream flash on each side of the nose carrying a teal lightning bolt that runs aft as a cheat line, stepping up under the rear window to run beneath a black ‘G-AFTL’, teal cowling rings and propeller hubs, grey propellers with white and grey tips, ‘G-AFTL’ above and below the wings and the Lockheed star badge on each fin (shape from the-blueprints.com Model 12-A three-view, cross-checked against a second published three-view, with the details following photographs of G-AFTL at Duxford in 2023 and at RIAT in 2025). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Lockheed 12A Electra Junior (1936) modelled here.

History

The Electra Junior

Lockheed’s Model 10 Electra of 1934 had put the company back on its feet after the Depression, and the Model 12 was a smaller version of it, aimed at the feeder airlines and at businesses wanting a fast, private twin. It kept the Electra’s all-metal stressed-skin construction, low wing, twin fins and rudders and retractable main undercarriage, but carried six passengers instead of ten, and with two 450 hp Wasp Juniors it was faster than the larger aircraft. The prototype first flew on 27 June 1936, and the type was certificated as the Model 12A that October.

Few airlines bought it, as the American carriers were moving to much larger aircraft such as the Douglas DC-3. Oil companies, newspapers and wealthy private owners took to it instead as one of the first true executive aircraft, and it sold abroad to owners in Britain, Canada, Argentina and elsewhere. The US Army Air Corps bought it as the C-40 and the Navy as the JO-1 and JO-2 utility transports; one Navy XJO-3 tested a tricycle undercarriage for carrier landings, and the Netherlands East Indies ordered the Model 212 as a bombing trainer.

In Britain the Electra Junior is remembered for a single purpose. In 1939 the Australian Sidney Cotton, with the backing of the Secret Intelligence Service and its air intelligence chief, Fred Winterbotham, flew Lockheed 12As on business trips to Germany, Italy and the Mediterranean carrying hidden cameras that photographed airfields, ports and defences on the way. The aircraft were registered in the names of civil firms and their polished, harmless look was the point. When war came, Cotton’s methods and staff became the RAF’s first specialist photographic reconnaissance unit, at Heston.

This airframe

Lockheed 12A Electra Junior G-AFTL

G-AFTLThe airframe modelled

G-AFTL (c/n 1203) was built at Burbank in 1936 and delivered as NC16077 to the Continental Oil Company. In April 1939 it was sold to Sidney Cotton and on 15 May registered in Britain to British Airways Ltd, a cover for its real work for the Secret Intelligence Service; Cunliffe-Owen at Eastleigh fitted it with extra fuel tanks and three F.24 cameras behind sliding panels in the belly. Cotton flew it over Germany and Italy through the summer, and on 24 August 1939 it was the last British civil aircraft to leave Berlin before the war. On 19 September 1940 it was damaged by a parachute mine at Heston, then shipped back to Burbank and rebuilt, and from 1942 it flew in the Americas as NX21707, VP-TAI with British West Indian Airways, N1161V and N12EJ, its owners including the display pilot Art Scholl. French collectors bought it in 2015; restored by Ultimate Warbird Flights at Sywell, it was re-registered G-AFTL in March 2022, flew again on 27 March 2023 and is now based at IWM Duxford, where it flies at the Duxford air shows. The model shows it as restored, standing tail-down on its main wheels and tail wheel: pale cream overall with a teal nose cap, anti-glare band and lower nose, a cream flash on each side of the nose carrying a teal lightning bolt that runs aft as a cheat line, stepping up under the rear window to run beneath a black ‘G-AFTL’, teal cowling rings and propeller hubs, grey propellers with white and grey tips, ‘G-AFTL’ above and below the wings and the Lockheed star on each fin. The shape follows the-blueprints.com Model 12-A three-view, cross-checked against a second published three-view, with the details taken from photographs of G-AFTL at Duxford in 2023 and at RIAT in 2025.

See it at IWM Duxford

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Electra Junior in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 232 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.