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A piece of American history preserved by Germans
American Thinker ^
| November 27, 2008
| Thomas Lifson
Posted on 11/27/2008, 11:09:12 PM by neverdem
An airworthy example of the ultimate piston-powered airliner will survive, thanks to the efforts of our German friends. The most advanced version of the most beautiful passenger airliner ever built, the Lockheed Constellation L-1649, is being restored to airworthy condition in Maine by a coalition of organizations connected with Lufthansa German Airlines. As an aviation buff, I am grateful for this effort.

L-049 (the first Constellation) public domain image (hat tip: Wikimedia)
The original Constellation model, the L-049 was commissioned in the late 1930s by Trans World Airlines, then under the control of Howard Hughes, as a pressurized transcontinental airliner. The distinctive triple vertical stabilizer (tail) reportedly was the result of a specification that the airplane could fit into the existing maintenance hangars TWA had at the Kansas City Municipal Airport, which were servicing its fleet of DC-3s. By having three shorter stabilizers, the need for a taller tail fin was obviated. Aviation legend Kelly Johnson, the father of the Lockheed "skunk works" design facility for secret aircraft like the U-2, was involved in the design effort. The Constellation used a scaled-up version of the the wing on the P-38 Lightning fighter, also designed and built in Burbank by the genius Kelly Johnson.
When the United States entered World War II, the airliners being readied for TWA were commandeered for military use, so the airplane did not enter commercial service until after the war. But in mid 1944, Howard Hughes was allowed to pilot one of his Connies from Burbank Airport (where the planes were built) to Washington, DC, nonstop, making headlines as the first airliner able to accomplish such a feat, and setting up TWA and Lockheed for a glorious postwar future. The plane took almost 7 hours to make the trip, but that was a new record. The plane traveled 330 miles per hour. No airliner ever before had been able to attempt a nonstop coast-to-coast flight.
A high performance airplane, the Connie was perhaps not as easy or economical to build and service as some of its postwar rivals produced by Douglas Aircraft, the DC-4, DC-6 and DC-7. The Douglas models outsold the Connie equivalent models. But the Constellation remained the most beautiful airliner, with its elegantly curving fuselage and high landing gears (necessary to accommodate the giant props mounted on it Curtis-Wright engines). Those powerful engines also reportedly needed more service and had more incidents of trouble than the engines used on Douglas airframes.
As the jet age neared, Lockheed foolishly updated the Constellation to higher performance in speed and range. The 1649 variant, called the "Starliner", debuted in the skies only a year or two before the Boeing 707 made long range "high speed" prop airliners obsolete. For a brief period, the Starliner was the queen of the skies, and TWA took full advantage. It called the plane the "Jetsream" based on its ability to cruise high and ride the jetstream winds (when they were in its favor - i.e., eastbound). Of course, in a westbound direction, the winds run against the airplane. In fact the record set by TWA flying nonstop from London to San Francisco, staying aloft for 23 hours and 19 minutes, covering over 5300 miles against serious headwinds, still stands as the longest time spent aloft by a commercial airliner in history, without a fueling stop, at an average speed of 230 miles per hour.
Only 44 Starliners were ever produced. TWA's decision to spend so much money on an airplane soon to be obsolete began its decline from a position as the glamorous "Airline of the Stars" to utlimate bankruptcy and absorption into American Airlines. Hughes insisted on ordering the Convair 880, a smaller jetliner than the 707 or DC-8, but a faster plane. These aircraft also proved a financial drag on TWA, due to high operating costs and lower passenger capacity and delivery issues. But they, too, were beautiful and high performance airliners. I flew on them every chance I got in the 1960s. The 880 and its sister the 990 led to the demise of their maker, Convair.
Another customer for the Starliner was Deutsche Lufthansa. You can see some copyrighted images of the Starliner in Lufthansa livery
here. Thus it was that Lufthansa Technik, the aircraft maintenance subsidiary of Lufthansa (a widely-respected firm that performs technical services for many airlines) became interested in purchasing three airframes housed at the Lewiston-Auburn Airport in Maine, where they had been brought by aviation enthusiast Maurice Roundy. The three airframes were bought last year by the Germans, and just this week, a
newly-constructed hangar was opened, purpose-built to house the restoration of one Starliner, cannibalizing parts from the other two birds, in order to produce an airworthy plane.
I have visited surviving Constellations at a number of air museums and storage facilities. One of two Constellations used by President Eisenhower as Air Force One is on display and open to the public at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. You can board the airplane and get a sense of what aircraft interiors were like at the height of the prop age (claustrophobic compared to today's jets -- even in the Presidential fleet). In the same hnagar, you can visit the DC-6 aircraft used by Harry Truman, and comapre the two rival propeller-driven airliners of the 1940s and 50s.
In our rush to develop the next technology, we often lose sight of the achievements of the past. The Lockheed Constellation's ultimate version merits preservation as a landmark in the history of travel. I am thankful that Germans have stepped up to the plate to preserve this ultimate example of a remarkable airliner.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; History
KEYWORDS: airliner; airplane; constellation
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1
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:09:12 PM
by
neverdem
To: neverdem
Sorry... but the LSC is to beautiful not to post in its full glory....
2
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:19:05 PM
by
xcamel
(Conservatives start smart, and get rich, liberals start rich, and get stupid.)
To: neverdem
neverdem:
Thank you for posting. Sure would like to ride a Connie again someday.
Welcome to Ralph M. Pettersen’s Constellation Survivors Website
http://www.conniesurvivors.com/
To: neverdem
Oh, and the original...
4
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:21:49 PM
by
xcamel
(Conservatives start smart, and get rich, liberals start rich, and get stupid.)
To: neverdem
No doubt the Constellation was a giant step forward for commercial aviation but I've always been in love with the Lockheed Electra. Hats off to the Germans involved with the restoration of that Constellation. ;o)
I couldn't resist posting a pic of an Electra.
5
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:25:51 PM
by
Liberty Valance
(Keep a simple manner for a happy life ;o)
To: neverdem
Why on earth would anyone want to preserve the “Lead Sled?”
6
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:26:51 PM
by
arthurus
(Old Age beat itself with its ownguile and lack of enthusiasm.)
To: xcamel
My uncle used to fly one of these for TWA, he loved flying it.
To: neverdem
My mother, who was the president of her local American Association of University Women chapter, took her first airplane flight in a TWA Connie from Los Angeles to Kansas City to attend the AAUW’s national conference in June, 1959. Two years later, I flew to Germany aboard a DC-6. I’ve also flown in a DC-3.
To: neverdem
Thanks for the great post!
The first time I flew was on a Supper Connie, DC to Atlanta in 1957.
During a midshipman summer cruise in 1966, I was stationed with VP-24 flying in P2V’s. One night on guard duty I was assigned a hangar containing a Super Connie with both dorsal & belly radomes. The aircraft was painted flat battleship gray, with half of each radome painted black. It had the US aviation insignia in black and a small number 7 in black. That was all the markings it had.
I always wondered what it was. Early AWACS?
To: neverdem
It is a beautiful airplane.
(Beware, sad horse story.)
Last saw one in the middle 60’s while it was on final at SFO perhaps @ 300’. It was moving slowly and dramatically nose way down, nose wayup. I was northbound on the freeway in traffic and could not move over but fully expected a catastrophe.
It seems Bing Crosby had shipped an Arabian thoroughbred by air and due to delays the tranquilizers had worn off. The panicked horse had broken loose from his restraints and was racing from one end of the cargo bay to the other. Crewman had to destroy the horse with a fire axe in order to save the ship.
10
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:33:07 PM
by
frog in a pot
(Is there a definition of "domestic enemies" as used in federal oaths, or is that just lip service?)
To: Fiji Hill
Wife and I flew a Air Liberdat DC 3 from Huatulco to Oaxaca, Mexico some years back. The airplane was spotlessly clean and flown by two pilots wearing what appeared to be blue Nomex jumpsuits.
I could look out the window and observe the engine on the right wing which produced a tiny drip of oil every few minutes. I thought, as long as the oil continues, there must be oil in that big motor...
To: neverdem
John W. Cook Sr., A close friend of mine, and my family was one whom piloted these lovely aircraft in the 1950’s in the employ of TWA. He and a friend set a World Record in 1958 for the longest uninterrupted flight in history in Las Vegas, Nevada. The record still holds. There was once upon a time a small mention of the feat at the AOPA website, and within the past 10 years IIRC the modified Cessna 172 he and his friend flew into the record books was placed in a Museum on display at McCarron Airport in Las Vegas.
Special plane, special people.
John passed away in 1997 IIRC, and his lovely wife Gwendolyn passed on two years later. They were wonderful people my wife and myself miss very much.
12
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:39:49 PM
by
rockinqsranch
(Dems, Libs, Socialists, Call 'em what you will, they ALL have Fairies livin' in their Trees.)
To: rockinqsranch
Besides TWA, which airlines flew the Connie ?
I know United preferred the DC-6, which we flew several times in the 1950s. Northwest had some odd double decker airplanes, I think. Never flew NW to Asia because PAA was the dominant carrier then.
To: neverdem
I remember around 1952, my Daddy drove us out to the airport in Panama City, FL just to look at the airplanes. There was a Constellation parked on the runway. I was only five but I can still recall seeing those three tail sections like it was yesterday.
Now that I think about it, a Constellation at that fairly small airport may have been unusual and just might have been the reason he drove us out there.
Anyway a real classic and very distinctive looking plane.
14
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:50:49 PM
by
yarddog
To: Eric in the Ozarks
Civilian airlines that operated the Constellation included:
Argentina
Aerolineas Carreras
Aerolineas Entre Rios
Trans Atlantica Argentina
Transcontinental
Australia
Qantas
Austria
Aero Transport
Belgium
Sabena (leased from Western Airlines)
Brazil
Panair do Brasil
REAL
VARIG
Canada
Nordair
Trans Canada Airlines
Ceylon
Air Ceylon
Chile
Transportes Aereos Squella
Republic of China
China Airlines
Colombia
Avianca
Cuba
Cubana de Aviación
Dominican Republic
Aerotours Dominicana
Aerovias Quisqueyana
France
Air France
Germany
Lufthansa
Haiti
Air Haiti International
India
Air India
Ireland
Aer Lingus
Israel
El Al
Korea
Korean National Airlines
Luxembourg
Luxair
Mexico
Aeronaves de Mexico
Aerovias Guest
Morroco
Royal Air Maroc
Netherlands
KLM
Pakistan
Pakistan International Airlines
Panama
Lineas Aerea de Panama
Paraguay
Lloyd Aereo Paraguayo
Peru
LANSA
Perú Internacional - COPISA
Trans-Peruana
Portugal
Transportes Aereos Portugueses
Senegal
Government of Senegal
South Africa
South African Airways
Trek Airways
Spain
Iberia
Tunisia
Air Afrique
United Kingdom
ACE Freighters
British Overseas Airways Corporation
Britannia Airways
Euravia
Falcon Airways
Trans European Aviation
Universal Sky Tours
United States
Alaska Airlines
American Airlines
American Overseas Airlines
Braniff International Airways
Capital Airlines
Chicago and Southern Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Federal Aviation Administration
Flying Tiger Line
Great Lakes Airlines
Imperial Airlines
Intercontinent Airways
Miami Airlines
Modern Air Transport
NASA
Northwest Orient Airlines
Pacific Northern Airlines
Pan American World Airways
Regina Cargo Airlines
Seaboard & Western Airlines
Seaboard World Airlines
Slick Airways
South Pacific Airlines
Trans World Airlines
United Airlines
United States Airways
Western Airlines
Wien Air Alaska
Uruguay
Aerolineas Uruguayas
Venezuela
Linea Aeropostal Venezolana
15
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:53:25 PM
by
Army Air Corps
(Four fried chickens and a coke)
To: xcamel
Connies, both military and civil, were beautiful ships.
16
posted on
11/27/2008, 11:55:09 PM
by
Army Air Corps
(Four fried chickens and a coke)
To: Eric in the Ozarks
Sorry, I don’t know whom else other than Lufthansa as stated in the article.
17
posted on
11/28/2008, 12:01:33 AM
by
rockinqsranch
(Dems, Libs, Socialists, Call 'em what you will, they ALL have Fairies livin' in their Trees.)
To: zot
18
posted on
11/28/2008, 12:24:02 AM
by
GreyFriar
(Spearhead (3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87))
To: xcamel
Too bad they didn’t restore an -049 (I think that’s what you see in Lufthansa livery in post #4 (from xcamel).
The -1649s had turbocompound engines (with PRTs - power recovery turbines - in the exhaust streams) that were a maintenance nightmare. The progression of engines in the models was summed up by mechanics and flight engineers as:
-049 = Overpowered
-1049 = Underpowered
-1649 = F**ked-up powered
19
posted on
11/28/2008, 12:41:13 AM
by
QBFimi2
(Ve are the New World Order; ve bring to the world dis-order. Spike Jones, 1943.)
To: Eric in the Ozarks
I used to ride Southern’s DC-3 from Valdosta to Atlanta in the morning and back again that night. Out the window just behind the wing you could see oil caught in the the air stream, running back over the engine cover, and watch the sheet metal screws dancing back and forth. At night, especially on take-off, the engine exhaust looked like it might set the whole thing on fire. In fact, it looked like it had already done so.
20
posted on
11/28/2008, 12:41:36 AM
by
zebra 2
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