The Lockheed Model 34 Big Dipper was a single prototype aircraft developed and built by Lockheed to explore the potential of entering the civil lightplane and military light utility aircraft markets. It was designed by John Thorp, based on his previous work on Lockheed's Little Dipper lightplane project. The low-wing cantilever monoplane had a fixed tricycle landing gear and a conventional empennage, with an enclosed cabin seating two side-by-side. The Continental piston engine was unusually mounted in the center fuselage behind the cabin, driving a two-bladed pusher propeller at the aircraft's rear.
The Model 34, built at Burbank in July 1945, was kept secret by moving it to Palmdale for flight testing at Muroc Dry Lake. After 40 hours of flight testing, the prototype returned to Burbank for modifications. However, the correction of the wing-root stall issue was not corrected. On February 6, 1946, the aircraft stalled and crashed during takeoff from a shorter runway near the factory. With the loss of the prototype and a lack of interest in new lightplanes due to a surplus of war-surplus aircraft, the project was abandoned, including a proposed high-wing four-seat "Super Dipper" derivative.
