[1] The Model 44 was the first four-engined design from the company,[1] a low-wing monoplane with a retractable tricycle landing gear.
These studies led Lockheed's Burbank facility to settle on a design dubbed Model 44, a four-engined airliner that was announced to the public in April 1939.
The revision of specifications was partially due to a request from Pan American Airlines; their influence also caused the addition of the third tailfin.
A variant designated the L-144, able to carry 40 passengers was planned, but was ultimately cancelled even though South African Airways had placed a potential order for two examples.
The eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who recently gained ownership of Transcontinental & Western Air (dubbed TWA for short), decided to provide funding for the new Excalibur.
He had a plan in mind to vastly improve the characteristics of the Excalibur by increasing comfort, speed and profit of the aircraft.
It was thus that Hughes invited three workers from Lockheed and Jack Frye (president of TWA) to a meeting at his Hancock Park residence.
Hughes expressed his requirements for the "airliner of the future": a payload of 36 passengers (or 20 sleeping berths), a six-person crew, a 3,600 mi (5,800 km) range, a 300 mph (480 km/h) cruise speed, and a weight of 52,000–55,000 lb; 23,500–25,000 kg (23.5–25 t).