Early American Airliners, And The Story Of The Lockheed "Connie" Constellation
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- Опубліковано 30 жов 2023
- A documentary about the history of U.S. early airlines, and the history of the beloved Lockheed "Connie" Constellation.
Commercial airlines initially struggled to get off the ground, but with help from the government, which awarded airlines contracts to deliver the mail, they soon began to flourish. Despite the Great Depression, air transportation experienced phenomenal growth and change from the late 1920s through the 1930s, before U.S. entry into World War II intervened.
As technology improved, aircraft evolved from World War I-style biplanes into sleek, high-performance modern airliners. A solid infrastructure took shape under government guidance through the Post Office and the Commerce Department, and regulatory reforms reshaped the industry.
Passenger service took root and grew, and air routes spread across the country. But because air travel was so expensive, only the wealthy and business travelers flew. The flying experience improved but remained an often uncomfortable adventure.
After World War I, many people began to operate commercial airlines. But every one of these early efforts failed because of high operating costs. Airlines could not make enough money carrying passengers or cargo. They needed financial help-subsidies-until technological and organizational improvements could enable them to become self-sufficient and profitable.
With the financial support provided by air mail contracts from the U.S. government, four large aviation holding companies soon arose. William Boeing and Frederick Rentschler of Pratt & Whitney formed the first and the largest, United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. Clement Keys formed North American Aviation and the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Aerial photography pioneers Sherman Fairchild, Averill Harriman, and Robert Lehman created The Aviation Corporation (AVCO). While these consolidations promised greater efficiency, airlines still remained unprofitable without government help.
Boeing System Label
Aircraft builders William Boeing, Philip Johnson, Claire Egtvedt, and Eddie Hubbard created Boeing Air Transport (B.A.T.) in 1927 to fly the mail from Chicago to San Francisco. B.A.T. was so successful that it acquired Pacific Air Transport. By 1931 these two airlines, along with Varney Air Lines and National Air Transport, were operating as United Air Lines.
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The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. Among the first aircraft that involved Kelly Johnson, the genius behind Skunk Works.
The first four-engine aircraft was produced by Lockheed. Upon its first flight, the chief test pilot remarked, "This machine works so well that you don't need me anymore!"
The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its pressurized cabin enabled commercial passengers to fly well above the worst weather for the first time, thus significantly improving the general safety and ease of air travel.
Several different models of the Constellation series were produced, although they all featured the distinctive triple-tail and dolphin-shaped fuselage. Most were powered by four 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones. In total, 856 were produced between 1943 and 1958 at Lockheed's plant in Burbank, California, and used as both a civil airliner and as a military and civilian cargo transport. Among their famous uses was during the Berlin and the Biafran airlifts. Three served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of which is featured at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
General characteristics
Crew: 5 flight crew, varying cabin crew
Capacity: typically 62-95 passengers (109 in high-density configuration) / 18,300 lb (8,301 kg) payload
Length: 116 ft 2 in (35.41 m)
Wingspan: 126 ft 2 in (38.46 m)
Height: 24 ft 9 in (7.54 m)
Wing area: 1,654 sq ft (153.7 m2)
Aspect ratio: 9.17
Airfoil: root: NACA 23018; tip: NACA 4412
Empty weight: 79,700 lb (36,151 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 137,500 lb (62,369 kg)
Zero-lift drag coefficient: CD,0 = 0.0211
Drag area: 34.82 sq ft (3.235 m2)
Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-3350-DA3 Duplex-Cyclone 18-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,250 hp (2,420 kW) each
Propellers: 3-bladed constant-speed propellers
Performance
Maximum speed: 377 mph (607 km/h, 328 kn)
Cruise speed: 340 mph (550 km/h, 300 kn) at 22,600 ft (6,888 m)
Stall speed: 100 mph (160 km/h, 87 kn)
Range: 5,400 mi (8,700 km, 4,700 nmi)
Service ceiling: 24,000 ft (7,300 m)
Rate of climb: 1,620 ft/min (8.2 m/s)
Lift-to-drag: 16
Wing loading: 87.7 lb/sq ft (428 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.094 hp/lb (0.155 kW/kg)
#constellation #skunkworks #aircraft - Наука та технологія
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19:35
I was present at JFK with my Dad, waiting at the American Airlines hangar for the first American Airlines Boeing 707 to arrive. We spotted it on final when over my left shoulder a TWA Super Connie just took off and was climbing out. It was the perfect moment. The old piston era was leaving and the new jet age was arriving.
American was flying 707s years before IDLEWILD AIRPORT became "JFK".
My first flight on a commercial aircraft ( back in 1953 was a Connie out of Anchorage Alaska owned by pacific Northern Airlines. When we (The Sayers family) finally left Anchorage in 1956 it was on a PNA Connie out of Anchorage to Seattle .My last flight (on a Connie )was from Juneau AK in 1959. The pilot was a friend of ours from Anchorage who invited me to the cockpit for the trip to Seattle . What a thrill for a 14 yr old. What a beautiful plane. The Connie was a great plane and I am lucky to have flown in one while they were still "active" with airlines before the advent of jets. ( bACK THEN FLYING on Commercial airlines )was different in many ways . became a pilot myself a few year s later.but never flew any thing big like a Connie.
One of one of the most beautiful planes to grace the skies!!!
No doubt!
Absolutely, yes
Bobbyo60 absolutely, such a beauty, designed way ahead of its time
My one and only adventure with the Constellation started in Sao Paulo , Brazil on 18 August, 1961. On that date my family and I , 12 years old boarded a VARIG Super G on route to New York. The routing was Sao Paulo=Rio= Belem=Port of Spain=Dominican Republic and finally New York, then still called Idlewild. As our final destination was Chicago we transferred to LGA and boarded a TWA Super G with stops in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and finally Chicago Midway, ORD O\Hare was not yet operational. As the transition to turbos and pure jets had just started that was my only encounter with the Connie, I am now 74 and still hold that adventure nearest to my heart. Interestingly later in life I once again flew hundreds of times in another Lockheed airplane, the L188Electra,VARIG of Brazil acquired 14 of the type from American Airlines for the Rio - Sao Paulo Ponte Aerea, " Air Bridge" from early 60's to late 90's without ever recording a single accident, amazing..............................................
As an old "Gooney Bird" crew member during the 1960's,(Radio Operator), in my humble opinion this was and is the BEST aircraft ever made. Thank you for this story...
I flew it in 1950, 1953, and a super constalation in 1957. Very special in those days!
Delta Airlines L1011 from Atlanta to Paris and then back. Very wide, spacious, luxurious, cozy, and quiet.
My favorite to this day ... Being 727-200.
My Dad was a TWA pilot from 1954 to the 1980s. I flew in Connies many times. It was always my favorite plane.
What an elegant, beautiful plane!
First airliner I ever flew on; TWA Super Connie in 1960, LAX to St Louis - then a DC-3 from St Louis to Evansville Indiana.
I was 5 years old and received real metal wings from the Captain. We sat in the “family” seats which faced each other. It was an amazing adventure that was repeated two years later in 1962. This time we flew to St Louis n a Boeing 707, and the flight to Evansville was on a Lockheed Electra.
Airline flights were an amazing adventure back then. Everyone dressed up for the flight, I wore a suit with a bow tie and shorts instead of long pants. I lobbied hard to wear an actual suit with regular tie on the 1962 trip, which I was successful.
Safe to say, even after serving in the US Air Force at the end of the Vietnam War, the Lockheed Constellation is my all-time favorite airplane.
Now people fly half naked, specially fat people!
same generation. i was dressed up in a suit and tie for my first flight too. i remember somehow that it was a 737. the constellation sure is a beaut. it still bothers me to see people in certain jobs not wearing a suit anymore, it makes me think they don't fully understand the gravity of what they're doing
I flew on one from the UK to the US when I was six. back in 1954. My father was in the USAF and we had been stationed in the UK a few years back ---Took a ship (USS George Washington) to get there.
While working a ramp job in early 1990s in seattle what old timers had told me about was parked at our hangar. It was being used as a freight hauler
Sneaking on one day...there it was...a glass bubble in the crafts roof?...i had no idea...oldtimers knew...if your under 50...u ll never guess. The navigators used the glass bubble to use sextants etc. To use star triangular observations to guide the constellation to its destination!!!
Ive been on about 6 different commercial propeller craft and believe only the constellation had such a viewing port
She was a beautiful aircraft!!😊😊
With its elegant lines and curves it remains the most beautiful plane ever!
My first plane flight took place in 1954 on the Constellation when we flew to New York from Puerto Rico, and yes, the passengers had class then. I was a child but that trip is still fresh in my mind and unforgettable.
I was a child passenger in the Superconstellations and the Douglas airliners of the day. A very different experience than today.
An awesome documentary. Love the extreme detail. Thanks!
I flew on a Lockheed constellation in 1959 and by far it was pure luxury with big wide comfortable seats & linen headrest covers compared to the plastic Boeings and Airbus fecal sardine cans the airlines fly now! Also the people then unlike today the men wore suits and ties and real woman wore dresses! Yes they all had "CLASS " then unlike the street bums of modern day today! Up Up Away Fly TWA!
and you could see a talkie fer a nickel
Do you mean the time when only rich people could fly? Chicago to phoenix, for example, easy 1200$ in today's money back then. Who blue-collar could pay for that easily. That's $ 4800 for a family trip, a couple plus 2x kids.
You are comparing apples and oranges
@@Lou.CypherNo I am not comparing apple to oranges. I am comparing class to no class! An era when bums wearing flip flops wearing stinking jeans weren't allowed to fly on airliners! And the price, your right kept them from doing so! As a passenger I flew on a constellation and It was a better time and I wish I could time travel back! ❤
@@turkey0165 so you are saying that these bums are now bothering you in 1st class right?
Because if not, it's apples and oranges.
You forget that it is now for everyone and not for the rich. And rich people can have no class too.
Everyone was wearing suits in that time. You forget that.
You need to sit up front in first, not back in coach.
A very pleasant historical video.
Thank you!
This is a very intresting and informative video. Thank You.
The last piston powered aircraft I flew on was a DC-7. It was fabulous. Never got the chance to board a Connie.
Another era in airline travel....
What a wonderful plane, so nice looking too.
When I was stationed in Puerto Rico the local air force base had quite a few of them in active service. A truly great looking ship.
I've been on one. The QANTAS one that they have at the HARS museum in Albion Park NSW Australia. Great experience.
Fun Fact: The L-1011 could ride a controlled wheelie on it's back wheels the full length of the take-off.✈
From Wikipedia...Yet before being devoured by his eccentricities, Hughes was a true entrepreneurial genius who achieved remarkable accomplishments as a movie producer, an aviator and an industrialist.😇 Not bad for a mediocre student who did not finish high school.
In 1967 I was stationed at NAS Cubi Pt as a member of crash fire and at least one Flying Tigers Constellation would land every day and unload its cargo at the freight terminal located next to crash fire. The pilots were friendly and would allow us onboard to check out the cockpit and sit in the pilot's seat. A beautiful plane.
As a kid in the 1950's we flew on the variouscversions of the constellation and it was SO far better in comfort and elegance that even as a kid I was impressed. Later we flew on the Boeing 707 the year it was introduced. The comfort of a jet over piston engine planes was a quantum leap! But the constellation was a super baby for sure....
US Navy used the Constellation to ferry personnel around the world. I recall going out in 1962 to NAS Point Mugu, where our Dad had been working with Pacific Missile Range for several years, and watching him board a Constellation and take off to fly to Eniwetok, by way of Hawai'i for his first Command... Beautiful airplane, got him there safely!!!
I logged 2000+ hours in flight crews of Navy WV-2 (EC-121) Lockheed Super Constellation Warning Stars as a part of Distant Early Warning (DEW). The Super Connies I flew in were magnificent aircraft. They were early versions of today's AWACS aircraft. On patrol many times the Wright R-3350 engines would be flown at METO power because of the drag created by the upper and lower radomes. Most people today have no idea what the DEW Line was about. I used to try to explain it but don't even try any more. I just say I was in the Navy.
Nice video
I flew in a Lockheed constellation in 1966 to Cincinnati,noisy as hell but they served me a steak for lunch. How times change.
The Connie was the last plane ORVILLE WRIGHT ever flew back in 1946 They picked him up in Dayton, OH. And gave him a turn in the cockpit on the wheel. Later they engaged the autopilot, and Orville said "I always believed that an airplane should be able to fly itself." Orville had only helped invent the airplane some 43 years before--- Lots of progress.
You are actually describing Orville Wright. Wilbur died in 1912 from Typhoid Fever.
And I knew THAT too. Odd how the brain works I specifically was thinking "Orville" when I was writing this in an effort to avoid this very error. @@timchilders3535
What's the music at the start it's so beautiful
The world's first turboprop airliner was the British Type 630 Vickers Viscount which had its first flight in July 1948. It was introduced on the18 April 1953 with British European Airways, and it was taken out of service 58 years later in 2009.
Anyone for the Ford Trimotor?
That’s nice, but I’m buying a ticket for the Stipa Caproni.
I absolutely love the overall look and design of the Tri-Motor. I live by the Boeing museum and every time I stand and stare at that plane. I'm trying to find 3 accurate model kits to build of her and maybe get to take it around and educate people of it's history and good/bad things about it.
The Conny is beautiful and ground breaking. I wish it was in service in my lifetime, born a little to late.
Salut moi je suis une adoratrice des ✈️ 🛩 🎉avions propliner vintage....dc-3 dc-4 dc-6 dc-6... super connie...Lockheed électrique...iljushin 14 iljushin 18...brequet deux ponts....grumman albatross.....
It was a drama that the L-1011, which was superior to the DC-10 in ALL relevant respects, ultimately lost out due to the problems of RR RB-211 financing problems! Since then, Lockheed Tristar has stood for the statement "The best is beaten by the second best!".
The Connie was Pres. Eisenhower's form of air transport - his "Air Force One" plane, though it wasn't yet called that at the time.
4:13The photos shown show two different aircraft. The photo here shows what I believe is a Stinson. How many others that reverse angled windscreen but your photos keep contradicting each other.
If I had the opportunity to have the flight of my choice before I die it would be in a Connie or a Super Connie. A flying masterpiece.
I seen a flight over SF Bay!..💪
The Constellation was my first flight. 1958. I remember the large windows.
I was also on Air Canada’s last Viscount flight. Can’t remember the year.
The k in Knute was silent!
Fun Fact: Piston-powered planes have an efficiency of 80% or more, when flown at moderate speeds.
Early fan-jet engines were at 50%, Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle
Yes
Picture aspect ratio stretched?...
I remember them as a child London to New York and also Eastern shuttle from Washington to New York.
From Wikipedia...The piston-engined airliners generally relied on electrical compressors to provide pressurized cabin air. Engine supercharging and cabin pressurization enabled aircraft like the Douglas DC-6, the Douglas DC-7, and the Constellation to have certified service ceilings from 24,000 to 28,400 ft (7,315 to 8,656 m)
Ah the good old days when airliners were usually early. Not like these days where they're generally late.
I don’t know if this narration is a human or synthetic voice but I’d think somebody involved would know that the “k” in Knute Rockne is silent.
Buck, I came straight here as soon as I heard the "K" to find your comment👌🏽
in German the K is spoken ! This is a German name originally !!!
@@franciscoeukalyptus6537But it was pronounced as Nute in the U.S.
I'm with you on that. I prefer a real voice other than in the case of some time's the person that put a program together because they love the subject and want to share what they know has trouble speaking or can't speak. I've seen some fine programs by such and fully enjoyed them.
I love this Documentary. I built a model of th4y T.W.A. Conny as a teenager because I fell in love with the look of it. It's still on my shelf 45 year later. :)
In 1956 I flew in a TW3 Constellation. My seat was right above the wings. The engine noise was deafening.
Dad was a navigator on EC-121's out of Otis AFB on Cape Cod
The sound effects sound of... - 'surely, you can't be serious?' ~ 'yes I am, and don't call me Shirley' 😎
The connie and dehaviland comet have my vote for most beautiful airliners 👍
A few errors here.
The DC-4 actually entered service a year ahead of the Connie. That, the fact it wasn’t using the new and still very troublesome 3350 contributed significantly to the fact it became the primary 4 engine transport of the war. Especially with priority for 3350s going to the B-29. Also Lockheed was very busy with P-38 production with the AirForce needing fighters a lot more than they needed transports.
The bomber variant of the Connie wasn’t proposed as the B-29 backup. That role was taken by the B-32 Dominator. The bomber variant was a response to the same RFP that led to the B-29 in the first place.
The Boeing 377 did use the wings and tail of the B-50 (itself a major derivative of the B-29) but it also used the lower fuselage section hence the double bubble look. It wasn’t a wings and tail on an all new fuselage variant.
The most heautiful aircraft
King Air BABY
Um, the "K" in Knute is silent.
I am 40 and have flown on a Dc3 when I was 12 and I wish I could get a ride on a constellation. My other wish ride was a 757 which I did ub 2013. Seems the 747 might be on my list soon since it is exiting the market fast.
Check OUT Oxnard, CA airport. There use to be a flyable CONNIE there for a very long time. I lived 45 minutes from there and saw it more than a hundred times. I always looked for it at its hanger location; sometimes there sometimes not. Good luck. If it’s still there let me know here. Thanks
There is still a flyable SUPER CONNIE, next in Camarillo,CA,the city next door. Google: super constellation Camarillo airport. You might even get a ride because they have rides available. Good luck. I’m 75. Still a beautiful plane. Where do you live? Plane ride might be expensive too save your money for that ride.
I think it said on the website it’s the only one flyable out of five in existence. Second owner airplane. First owner: United States Air force.
I would have slept so good in a sleeping compartment!!!❤
I worked Baby Connies at Torrejon AB ,Spain 65-68.
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird enters the chat.
I think the K is silent in Knute
💪
May I have everyone's scrap books? Oh Boy!
The KC 135 is on the way out but still flying. Incredible American ingenuity. Boeing is throwing it all away with DEI and cost savings. What a waste. I don’t fly but Americans will be flying on Chinese aircraft in a decade or so.
Is this narrated by Elmar Fudd?
My fist airliner trip was via North Central DC3, the DC 6 or 7, and the Connie. Later, NC had the 2 engine turboprop Convair 550, the those huge, rectangular 4 bladed props. There was the Lockeed Electra 4 engine turboprop. Then came the DC8 and 707. One time, it was the Convair 880, supposedly the fastest 4 engine jet. After the 60's and 70's, flying became nothing special.
The "K in "Knute" is silent.
Lockheed Electra?
“Livery” - the way an aircraft is painted - is pronounced like the body part liver so “livv er ee” not like the body part eye (not “l eye ver ee”)
Atlanta Ga
Just the name FOKKER woulda made me look for an all-metal plane.😳
I was going to ask if anyone ever took that flight on that type of plane
You neglect to mention that, just like Concorde the Yanks were nit the first with a passenger jet airliner, that was the Comet
This mostly about AMERICAN Airliners,mas the title says…
Yes, the Comet was classy, but as we all know, riding one was a game of Russian roulette!
@@mariekatherine5238 You only live once! :)
Is that a ufo? No, it is an "identified flying object!"
8:33
I am disgusted. Such a beautiful aircraft presented in this video with an altered/stretched horizontal aspect ratio is unforgivable. The plane did not have oval-shaped 8:38 landing gear tires and wheels, and was nowhere near as long as this distorted image 4:41 implies.
They don't rust
Pronounced "Fawker" not "Fōker"
"Livery" is pronounced like "liver."
Knute flew on a wooden airplane, YIKES!
Hard to believe they were still using part wood at that time.
2:15 Glue? Yeah, glad they got rid of that aviation engineering practice.
lol. "KA-nute" Rockne. The "K" is silent.
you also pronounced livery wrong, it’s more like liver-ee
The K in Knute is not pronounced
"But corporate greed got in the way" (4:00-4:08). "Corporate greed"?! Corporations are in the business of making money & looking out for their stockholders. That isn't "greed." In any case, it led to competition & the development of the Constellation. That's how capitalism works at its best.
As aircraft history, this is badly incomplete. Where are the important British contributions to the aircraft industry?
American Airliners, it is right in the title…We have plenty British celebratory videos,on the channel, sometimes only focused on brilliant people like Sir Frank Whittle, or the legendary Eric “Winkle” Brown.
Your assessment of the 8th flying night raids is incorrect. The RAF started with daylight raids and then switched to night raids when bombing during the day proved to be too costly. The 8th Air Force always flew daylight raids. Also, the Black pilot that flew in WWI was actually an American named Eugene Jacques Bullard. He did, however, fly for the French. As far as being shotdown and captured by the Germans, you would have had a better chance at surviving if you encountered German soldiers than German civilians. German civilians very well likely would beat you and in some cases beat you to death wheress German soldiers would take you for interrogation and then to a POW camp.
Sadly it’s the worst airline and frankly the shame of America!
You got a thumbs down for not pronouncing words correctly.
Functional plane yes, beautiful definitely not. Throw my opinion in as you have.
Lockheed was brilliant. The L-1011 was amazing but too late to beat the DC-10 which it could have. After that, Lockheed was smart enough to focus on military aircraft and do so today. McDonnell Douglas not so much.
💪