{"id":27636517,"date":"2026-10-11T16:52:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T14:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/?p=27636517"},"modified":"2026-10-11T16:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T14:53:13","slug":"lockheed-orion-swissair-verkehrshaus-faster-than-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/lockheed-orion-swissair-verkehrshaus-faster-than-fighters\/","title":{"rendered":"Faster Than Any Fighter? The Lockheed Orion at the Swiss Museum of Transport"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color .15s}\n.mfsh-trigger:hover,.mfsh-trigger:focus-visible{background:#0F1720;color:#fff;outline:none}\n.mfsh-trigger svg{width:18px;height:18px;display:block;flex-shrink:0}\n.mfsh-trigger.mfsh-bottom{margin:8px 0 28px}\n.mfsh-meta{position:relative;padding-right:190px}\n.mfsh-trigger.mfsh-inmeta{position:absolute;right:0;bottom:0;margin:0;height:30px;padding:0 8.9px;font-size:13px}\n.mfsh-trigger.mfsh-inmeta 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The placard beneath it is headed &ldquo;Faster than any Fighter-Plane&rdquo;. It is the Lockheed Orion, the aircraft that gave Swissair the fastest airline service in Europe in 1932, and it is the only Orion left anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We checked the placard line by line. Most of it holds up. Two claims do not, and the aircraft on display turns out to have a history that is stranger than the sign suggests: it never flew for Swissair at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-left:4px solid #1a1a1a;padding:18px 22px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px\"><li><strong>Type:<\/strong> Lockheed Model 9 Orion, single-engine airliner for 4&ndash;6 passengers<\/li><li><strong>Type approval:<\/strong> 6 May 1931<\/li><li><strong>Built:<\/strong> 35 (1931&ndash;34); one survives<\/li><li><strong>Swissair aircraft:<\/strong> Two Orion 9Bs, CH-167 and CH-168, delivered April 1932<\/li><li><strong>Swissair performance:<\/strong> About 360 km\/h top speed, 265 km\/h cruise (575 hp Wright Cyclone)<\/li><li><strong>Express service:<\/strong> Z&uuml;rich&ndash;Munich&ndash;Vienna from 2 May 1932<\/li><li><strong>Museum aircraft:<\/strong> Orion 9C Special, c\/n 180, the only Orion with a metal fuselage<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Europe&rsquo;s First High-Speed Airliner<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Swissair ordered two Orion 9Bs in 1932 at the urging of its co-founder and operations chief Balz Zimmermann. Powered by 575 hp Wright Cyclone radials, the wooden-fuselaged monoplanes arrived at D&uuml;bendorf on 7 April 1932. Swissair fitted only four seats instead of six to leave room for mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 2 May 1932 the Orion opened the new express route from Z&uuml;rich via Munich to Vienna, covering the 610 km in 140 minutes. From June passengers paid a 10-franc express supplement, and the aircraft still flew with an average load factor of 82 percent; in the first season they carried 1,804 passengers and 11,000 kg of mail. Swiss aviation pioneer Walter Mittelholzer used them for record flights too, from Z&uuml;rich to Rome and back in eight and a half hours and to Athens and back in fourteen and a half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/swissair-lockheed-9b-orion-ch-167-dubendorf-1935-1024x685.jpg\" alt=\"Swissair Lockheed 9B Orion CH-167 at D\u00fcbendorf in 1935\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The real Swissair CH-167 on the ground at D&uuml;bendorf in May 1935. Photo: Walter Mittelholzer \/ ETH-Bibliothek Z&uuml;rich, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;The Lockheed Orion was the fastest passenger &rsquo;plane of its time: at least twice as fast as all its competitors and faster than any fighter-plane.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Swiss Museum of Transport<\/strong> &mdash; placard beside the Orion in Lucerne<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Faster Than Any Fighter?<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Broadly, yes, at least in Switzerland. The Swiss Air Force&rsquo;s front-line fighter at the time, the Dewoitine D.27, topped out at about 312 km\/h, well short of the Orion&rsquo;s 360. Contemporary American fighters such as the Boeing P-12 and Curtiss P-6E managed roughly 304 and 311 km\/h. Britain&rsquo;s new Hawker Fury, at about 333 km\/h, came closer. &ldquo;Any fighter&rdquo; in the world is a strong claim, but the Orion really could outrun most of the fighters of 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&ldquo;At least twice as fast as all its competitors&rdquo; does not hold. The Fokker F.VIIb-3m, a workhorse of European airlines, cruised at about 178 km\/h; the Orion cruised at around 260 to 265. That is roughly one and a half times as fast, and the museum&rsquo;s own online article says the Orion was about 100 km\/h faster than the aircraft that dominated the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OmujROu3Zzg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Not the First Retractable Undercarriage<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The placard says the Orion was the first civil aircraft with retractable wheels. It was not. Boeing&rsquo;s Monomail mail plane flew with retractable gear on 6 May 1930, and its six-passenger Model 221 version followed in August 1930. Lockheed&rsquo;s own Altair, the Orion&rsquo;s sister design, also had retractable gear by September 1930. What the Orion can claim is to have been the first airliner with retractable gear in European airline service.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Only European Airline<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The claim that Swissair was the only European airline to fly the Orion is essentially right: it was the only one to order the type new and run it in regular service. One other Orion, a 9D, was registered in France, but it belonged to the aerobatic pilot Michel D&eacute;troyat, not an airline. Swissair replaced its Orions with the ten-seat Clark GA-43 and sold them in the mid-1930s; sources disagree on whether that was 1935, 1936 or early 1937, so the placard&rsquo;s &ldquo;until 1936&rdquo; is a fair approximation. Both ended up on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, where their final fate is unknown. The placard&rsquo;s nickname for them, &ldquo;Rote Hund&rdquo; (Red Dog), is plausible for the all-red aircraft, but we could find little contemporary evidence for it.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Survivor: Jimmy Doolittle&rsquo;s Shellightning<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The aircraft in Lucerne is not one of Swissair&rsquo;s two Orions. It is construction number 180, built at Detroit in 1931 as an experimental Altair, the only one with a light-metal fuselage. Leased to TWA as a mail plane, it made a belly landing at Columbus, Ohio, on 10 October 1931 and was rebuilt at Burbank in 1932 as an Orion 9C. That is the &ldquo;adulterated&rdquo; Orion the placard mentions: 34 Orions had spruce fuselages, this one had metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shell Oil then turned it into &ldquo;Shellightning&rdquo;, flown mainly by its aviation manager, Jimmy Doolittle, who used it for the George Washington Bicentennial mail flight on 25 June 1932. After damage at St. Louis in 1936, Hollywood stunt pilot Paul Mantz bought it in 1938, rebuilt it in red and white and finished third in the Bendix air races of 1938 and 1939. It passed through several owners, returned to Mantz in 1955 and went to his Tallmantz company in 1962, ending up parked outdoors at Orange County Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/lockheed-orion-nr12222-shellightning-doolittle-1024x597.jpg\" alt=\"Lockheed Orion NR12222 Shellightning flown by Jimmy Doolittle\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The museum aircraft in its Shell days as NR12222 &ldquo;Shellightning&rdquo;. Photo: San Diego Air &amp; Space Museum Archives, no known restrictions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dN2R6oKNCwg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Restored by Swissair Volunteers<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1976 the museum&rsquo;s founding director, Alfred Waldis, bought the Orion after Swissair captain Richi Schilliger tracked it down. With help from Swissair, McDonnell Douglas and Seaboard World Airways it was flown to Frankfurt and trucked to Z&uuml;rich, arriving on 10 November 1977. A team of 34 former Swissair employees, the &ldquo;Fokker Team&rdquo;, then spent more than 10,000 hours restoring it, about 2,500 of them on the engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 10 August 1978 the Orion taxied into the museum under its own power with Schilliger at the controls. Jimmy Doolittle came to see it, alongside Swissair&rsquo;s chief Armin Baltensweiler. It has worn the red Swissair colours and the registration CH-167 ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/lockheed-orion-swissair-fokker-team-restoration-1978-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"The restored Lockheed Orion with the Swissair volunteer restoration team in 1978\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Swissair &ldquo;Fokker Team&rdquo; with the restored Orion in 1978. Photo: Swissair, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;Erstes Schnellflugzeug in Europa&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Swiss Museum of Transport<\/strong> &mdash; collection description of the Orion (&ldquo;Europe&rsquo;s first high-speed aircraft&rdquo;)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ch_HXdFAFGI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Placard Check<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right: the Orion was the fastest airliner of its day in Europe, faster than the fighters of the Swiss Air Force and most others, Swissair opened its express route on 2 May 1932 with a 10-franc supplement, 35 were built and only this one survives, and it does have a metal rather than wooden fuselage. Overstated: &ldquo;at least twice as fast&rdquo; (closer to one and a half times) and &ldquo;most flights completely booked&rdquo; (82 percent on average). Wrong: the Orion was not the first civil aircraft with retractable gear. Worth adding: the aircraft you are looking at was never a Swissair Orion, but Jimmy Doolittle&rsquo;s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sources: Swiss Museum of Transport (placard; online article &ldquo;Die Orion 9C Spezial&rdquo;; collection database); Fokker Team, &ldquo;Orion im VHS&rdquo;; Association des Amis du Mus&eacute;e de l&rsquo;Aviation Militaire (aasm.ch) bulletin; flugzeugforum.de; eusebio.ch (citing Francillon); airhistory.net; General Aviation News (2004); Wikipedia, Lockheed Model 9 Orion, Lockheed Altair, Boeing Monomail, Dewoitine D.27, Hawker Fury, Fokker F.VII, Boeing P-12, Curtiss P-6 Hawk; ETH-Bibliothek Z&uuml;rich Bildarchiv; San Diego Air &amp; Space Museum<\/em><\/p>\n\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Was the Lockheed Orion faster than fighter planes?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Largely, yes. Swissair&rsquo;s Lockheed Orion 9B reached about 360 km\/h in 1932, faster than the Swiss Air Force&rsquo;s Dewoitine D.27 fighter at about 312 km\/h and American fighters such as the Boeing P-12 and Curtiss P-6E. Britain&rsquo;s Hawker Fury, at about 333 km\/h, came closer, so &ldquo;faster than any fighter&rdquo; is a slight overstatement.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Was the Lockheed Orion the first airliner with retractable landing gear?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">No. The Boeing Monomail flew with retractable gear in May 1930, and its six-passenger Model 221 version followed in August 1930, both before the Orion&rsquo;s type approval in May 1931. The Orion was the first airliner with retractable gear in European airline service, with Swissair from 1932.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many Lockheed Orions were built?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Lockheed built 35 Orions between 1931 and 1934. Only one survives, the Orion 9C Special on display at the Swiss Museum of Transport (Verkehrshaus) in Lucerne.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Is the Orion in the Swiss Museum of Transport a real Swissair aircraft?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">No. It wears the colours of Swissair&rsquo;s CH-167, but it is construction number 180, built in 1931 as a metal-fuselaged Altair, converted to an Orion 9C in 1932 and flown by Jimmy Doolittle for Shell as &ldquo;Shellightning&rdquo;. The museum bought it in 1976 and Swissair volunteers restored it by 1978.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Which airlines flew the Lockheed Orion in Europe?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Swissair was the only European airline to order the Lockheed Orion new and fly it in regular service, with two Orion 9Bs from 1932. Another Orion in France was privately owned by pilot Michel D&eacute;troyat, and the two ex-Swissair aircraft later went to the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How fast was Swissair&rsquo;s Orion express service?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Swissair&rsquo;s Lockheed Orion flew the 610 km express route from Z&uuml;rich to Munich and Vienna in 140 minutes from 2 May 1932. Passengers paid a 10-franc express supplement from June 1932, and the flights averaged 82 percent occupancy.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Was the Lockheed Orion faster than fighter planes?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Largely, yes. Swissair\u2019s Lockheed Orion 9B reached about 360 km\/h in 1932, faster than the Swiss Air Force\u2019s Dewoitine D.27 fighter at about 312 km\/h and American fighters such as the Boeing P-12 and Curtiss P-6E. Britain\u2019s Hawker Fury, at about 333 km\/h, came closer, so \\\"faster than any fighter\\\" is a slight overstatement.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Was the Lockheed Orion the first airliner with retractable landing gear?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"No. The Boeing Monomail flew with retractable gear in May 1930, and its six-passenger Model 221 version followed in August 1930, both before the Orion\u2019s type approval in May 1931. The Orion was the first airliner with retractable gear in European airline service, with Swissair from 1932.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many Lockheed Orions were built?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Lockheed built 35 Orions between 1931 and 1934. Only one survives, the Orion 9C Special on display at the Swiss Museum of Transport (Verkehrshaus) in Lucerne.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is the Orion in the Swiss Museum of Transport a real Swissair aircraft?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"No. It wears the colours of Swissair\u2019s CH-167, but it is construction number 180, built in 1931 as a metal-fuselaged Altair, converted to an Orion 9C in 1932 and flown by Jimmy Doolittle for Shell as \\\"Shellightning\\\". The museum bought it in 1976 and Swissair volunteers restored it by 1978.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Which airlines flew the Lockheed Orion in Europe?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Swissair was the only European airline to order the Lockheed Orion new and fly it in regular service, with two Orion 9Bs from 1932. Another Orion in France was privately owned by pilot Michel D\u00e9troyat, and the two ex-Swissair aircraft later went to the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How fast was Swissair\u2019s Orion express service?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Swissair\u2019s Lockheed Orion flew the 610 km express route from Z&uuml;rich to Munich and Vienna in 140 minutes from 2 May 1932. Passengers paid a 10-franc express supplement from June 1932, and the flights averaged 82 percent occupancy.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\">\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/jimmy-doolittle-blind-flight-1929-first-instrument-landing-mitchel-field\/\">Jimmy Doolittle&#8217;s Blind Flight: The 1929 Landing Made on Instruments<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/swissair-grounding-2001-25th-anniversary\/\">Swissair Grounding 2001: The Day Switzerland&#8217;s Airline Ran Out of Cash<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/eth-zurich-wind-tunnel-ackeret-supersonic-aerodynamics-history\/\">Mach 2 in Zurich: How ETH\u2019s Wind Tunnels Made Switzerland an Aerodynamics Pioneer<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wiley-post-solo-round-the-world-winnie-mae-pressure-suit\/\">Wiley Post: The One-Eyed Pilot Who Flew Around the World Alone<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A red Lockheed Orion hangs in the Swiss Museum of Transport under a placard calling it faster than any fighter. Most of the placard holds up. Two lines do not, and the aircraft itself has a far stranger history than the sign lets on.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":27636223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27636517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lockheed Orion: Swissair\u2019s Red Speedster Fact-Checked | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Swissair\u2019s Lockheed Orion was Europe\u2019s first high-speed airliner. 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