3 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Lockheed 8 Sirius 'Tingmissartoq' at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC: Cliff from I now live in Arlington, VA (Outside Washington DC), USA· CC BY 2.0
- 2. Altair 8D: NASA Langley· Public domain
- 3. Lockheed Sirius Paul Mantz: Unknown author Unknown author· Public domain
what is it?
The Lockheed Model 8 Sirius is a single-engined, propeller-driven monoplane designed and built by Jack Northrop and Gerard Vultee while they were engineers at Lockheed in 1929, at the request of Charles Lindbergh.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 13 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 97 years ago, in 1929.
- Top speed is 2.3× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 13 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
- Range of 1,569 km: 9× Amsterdam to Brussels.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1929
- introduced
- 1929
- number built
- 15
- role
- utility transport
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- engines
- 1× Pratt & Whitney Wasp / R-1340 Wasp
- passengers
- 4
- length
- 8.3 m
- wingspan
- 13 m
- height
- 2.8 m
- max take-off weight
- 3,220 kg
- top speed
- 298 km/h
- cruise speed
- 241 km/h
- range
- 1,569 km
- ceiling
- 7,955 m
- wings
- monoplane
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
family
Sources: Wikidata Q6665628, Wikipedia: Lockheed Model 8 Sirius (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.