It is unclear why this beautiful Vega had an NX registration. It was delivered to a Lockheed dealer in Detroit, the Schlee-Brock Aircraft Corporation. Edward Schlee and Bill Brock had flown a Stinson SM-1 Detroiter eastbound from Dearborn to Tokyo in 1927. On 23 July 1929, Schlee was seriously injured by the Vega's propeller when about to take off for a business trip. The registration was cancelled in April 1930 for reasons unknown. Photo from: Lockheed Martin

The very first Lockheed (rather than Loughead) aircraft, the Vega prototype, was bought by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and took off in the Dole Air Race to Hawaii one month after its first flight. It was clearly the most advanced plane in the race but vanished in the Pacific with pilot John Frost and navigator Gordon Scott. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum