Allan Haines Loughead - Real Estate Business

Real Estate Business

From 1920 to 1922, Allan Loughead was the Los Angeles sales manager for Lockheed brakes.

In the summer of 1922, Allan Loughead operated a unique ride concession at Catalina Island off Los Angeles. Called "The Thrill Of Avalon," it consisted of a touring car body mounted on two seaplane floats and powered by an aircraft engine driving a pusher propeller. However, the skimmer proved to be too rough and noisy to be popular and lasted only a year. Later, when asked if he made any profit on the venture, Allan laughed and said, "No, we went broke, which was not a new experience!"

In 1922, Allan Loughead became a real estate salesman in the Hollywood area. He wrote in 1942 that the real estate business was "not particulary interesting, but from a financial standpoint very successful."<

Whenever possible, Loughead and Jack Northrop would get together and discuss ideas about new aircraft. By now Northrop was an engineer with the Douglas Aircraft Company.

In 1926, Allan Loughead and Jack Northrop decided that the time was right to build a high-speed monoplane with room for four passengers and a pilot in a streamlined fuselage using their patented monocoque construction. As a result, Northrop began drawing up such a plane at home. The plans called for the plane to be powered by the new Wright Whirlwind engine. The only disagreement arose over the wing. Northrop wanted to use a self-supporting cantilever design that eliminated all wing struts. Loughead believed the public wouldn't want to fly in a plane with no visible wing supports. In the end, Northrop won out.