Lockheed Model 9B Orion - The Swiss Revolution

‘The Few’ will be a series of titles where the focus will be on airliners that were only built or operated in a few numbers and flew for a particular airline. This book about the Lockheed Model 9B Orion operated by Swissair is the first title in this series.

At the time of the introduction in Europe of the Lockheed Model 9B Orion, most airliners in service flew at an easy pace of 140km/h. Swissair, the national airline of Switzerland,  introduced now an aircraft that could fly at a speed of maximum 360km/h, but the usual cruising speed was around 260 to 280km/h. Nevertheless, the little wooden wonder from the USA flew 50% faster than any other aircraft – a revolution in European aviation. Swissair decided to operate the aircraft with just four passenger seats, as mail was far more important and lucrative to carry.

In this book, the author has described the history of the aircraft with many new details and photographs. Hubert Cance has made a cutaway of the aircraft, while Toni Ruffiner made colour profiles.