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The Legendary Lockheed ConstellationBy Stephan Wilkinson | Aviation History | 8 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post  A Lockheed C-121A, the U.S. Air Force version of the L-749 Constellation, makes a picture-perfect turn (Tony Zeljeznjak). ‘It was a source of some amusement (or terror, depending on one’s anxiety level) to Constellation passengers that the turbo compound engines spouted long tails of flame from their exhaust pipes’ The Lockheed Constellation may be the object of more misinformation and fables than any other airliner ever made. Subscribe Today
Howard Hughes designed it. (No. He designed Jane Russell’s cantilever bra, but he only specified the range and speed parameters he wanted for a new TWA transport.) The Constellation’s fuselage is shaped like an airfoil to add lift. (No. It curves upward at the rear to raise the triple tail out of the prop wash and slightly downward at the front so the nosegear strut didn’t have to be impossibly long. Lockheed decided that the airplane’s admittedly large propellers needed even more ground clearance than did Douglas or Boeing on their competing transports, which resulted in the Connie’s long, spindly gear legs.) It was known as “the world’s best trimotor” because it had so many engine failures that it often flew on three. (No. Boeing 377 Stratocruisers with R-4360 “corncob” engines had far more failures in airline service. There were a number of engine fires during the Constellation’s early development, but many airline pilots flew it for years without ever feathering an engine.) The Constellation was the first pressurized airliner. (The Boeing 307 Stratoliner in fact was.) The Constellation was the first tricycle-gear airliner. (The award goes to the Douglas DC-4.) One Constellation passenger got glued to a toilet seat when cabin pressurization failed. (Actually, that one’s true. Stories of this happening on modern jets are urban legends, but Connies had far more primitive potties. When the valve that emptied the toilet into the unpressurized reservoir failed on one airline flight, the poor lady who happened to be in the blue room at the time became the cork that maintained cabin pressure. She was freed when the crew depressurized the airplane.) Still, for an airplane that was produced in relatively small numbers by civil standards; that turned out to be a failure in its briefly spectacular ultimate version, the L-1649A Starliner; and that always played second fiddle to the more profitable, more economical and more easily manufactured competition from Douglas—the DC-4, -6 and -7—the Connie has lived in legend far beyond anything that its imaginative, graceful but complex design perhaps deserves. Stiff-necked Eddie Rickenbacker, the president of Eastern Air Lines, forbade his pilots to call the airplane “Connie,” convinced it sounded effeminate. Whether Captain Eddie’s prohibition had any effect on Eastern crews isn’t known, but the rest of the aviation world, which idolized the Connie, certainly ignored it. When the Constellation was conceived, Lockheed was not a player in the air transport business. The company made some large single-engine “airliners” based on the Vega, as well as the Lockheed 10, 12 and 14 twins, all of which were blown away by the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Douglas, the industry leader, was already at work on its own four-engine, triple-tail design, the DC-4E. Boeing had a substantial background in large four-engine transports—the huge 314 Pan Am Clipper flying boats and the 307 Stratoliner under development—and even Martin and Sikorsky had more experience with big multimotors, with their own four-engine flying boats. Lockheed was developing the P-38 Lightning and the Hudson patrol bomber, a military refinement of the Model 14, when company officials decided they needed to get in on the mini-boom in domestic airline travel that took place in the mid- to late 1930s. The obvious answer was a four-engine 14, and Lockheed called it the Model 44 Excalibur. No thanks, the airlines said—not big enough, not fast enough, not enough of a leap forward. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: Aircraft, Aviation History, Flight Technology
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8 Comments to “The Legendary Lockheed Constellation”
This article bought me fond memories of riding my bicycle out to the Tampa airport and spend hours watching the planes land and take off. There was a back way onto the airport property and we would ride through the woods and sit right by the runways. Often we would sit on the end of the rinway so that the planes would be right overhead. never gave a thought to being crushed. This was back around 1957. I always thought the Connies were the coolest thing built.
By Gene on May 17, 2009 at 10:11 pm
In 1971 while on the Civil Air Patrol International Air Cadet Exchange I flew into Berlin in a “Connie” with the seats facing backwards. The plane was fitted with a bar and a steward…however being cadets the bar was closed to us.
By Ltcol on May 29, 2009 at 2:01 pm
…those of us who flew in the USN versions, called R7V’s and EC-121’s, were very fond of our “Connies.” One R7V (444) made so many belly-landings due to landing gear problems that she earned the nicknames “cripple-4″ and “flying w-ore” for being on her belly so often…but they flew well and usually reliably.
…those of us who flew in the AEW/CIC “Warning Star” versions, called WV-2’s and EC-121K, P, etc., served our country during both the ‘Cold War’ (flying Pacific and Atlantic seaward extensions of DEW Line) and Viet Nam war…as night surviellance for the 7th fleet, ECM/Countermeasures all over the far east, or as weather (”Typhoon Trackers” and “Hurricane Hunters”) reconnaissance.
By Earles on May 31, 2009 at 6:05 pm
In late ‘69 or early ‘70 a group of Spanish speaking gentlemen taxied up to the rear of the Capitol Airways hangar where we were beginning to dispose of our “Connies” and offered to buy one. The deal was made, the “Connie” flew off to ???? Several days later there was a news report of an “Connie airliner” bombing Fidel Castro’s palace in Havana with 55 gallon drums rigged like Molotov cocktails. Anti-aircraft fire failed to bring down the aircraft which disappeared into the night according to news reports. The ex-Capitol Connie?????? Who knows, but we were quite good at maintaining and operating the much loved “Connie”.
By Jerry on Jun 1, 2009 at 5:33 pm
We took Connies over to Southeast Asia in 1967 for Igloo White, McNamara’s Electronic Battlefield. Ours were EC-121R’s, and there were a few EC-121S models at Korat, as well as Warning Star models. Ours were festooned with antennae like porcupines.
By George Kamburoff on Jun 17, 2009 at 4:19 pm
As a small boy, my family would go to the airport to meet my grandparents, when they departed or returned from a trip. TWA was the carrier at the time, and all boarding and deplaning took place using outside stairways. We could see everything, from the passengers and flight crews, to the ground crews checking out the aircraft. But the best part, was watching the Connie’s engines start, belching the smoke and fire that they were famous for, seeing the wheel chocks pulled, and then seeing her swing around as she began her taxi for takeoff. The air blast from the big props was what I lived for, and all of this occurred as I stood with my father, behind a 3 foot chain link fence. It was definitely a simpler time back then.
By Bob Weber on Jun 27, 2009 at 2:36 am
As one who has restored, flown, and performed maintenance on a Connie, I can truthfully tell you what a magnificient airplane it is. Back in the early 90’s, I was involved with a group of volunteers who restored a very sorrowful eye sore that was stored at the Camarillo Airport in Camarillo, CA. The group was the Constellation Historical Society, and how we transformed this airplane to flying status is a true testimony to the hard work of its members, and after five years of this hard work, N73544, Lockheed c/n 4175, took to the air again in June of 1994. It was a very emotional thing to watch pilot Frank Butorac and Flight Engineer Jimmy Jones put Connie through her paces that day, and I still get emotional when I think of that flight. Afterwards, we put N73544 on the air show circuit where she was always a welcome sight, and we did that for almost eight years. I’ll never forget that time, and it became a family affair with my wife and I associated with Jerry Steele, Flight Engineer and his wife Joyce, John and Cheryl Arp, pilots Chuck Grant and Pat Farrell. Today, N73544 flies the European skies for the Swiss group Super Constellation Flyers Association as HB-RSC, and she still looks as beautiful as she did when we flew her in the United States.
By Del Mitchell on Jul 1, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I flew Connies with AEWBARRONPAC out of NAS Barbers Pt Hi and NS Midway Island from 1962 to 1965.
We used R7V’s (straight Connies) for training flights. My favorite story is when I made a ONE engine landing. We were downwind to Runway 4 at BBP simulating 2 engines out (3 & 4 at idle or “zero-thrust” ). Just prior to the “180″ “brrrrrp” “Fire Warning No. 1″ OK “Feather No.1, execute fire emergency procedures,. “Checkpool 07 cleared to land R/W 4″ .
We fx’d #1, held the gear until lined up, and landed…but forgot to bring up 3 & 4!
R7V’s were very sweet. The Wv-2″s on the other hand were another story. As one instructor pilot told me in the landing pattern… ” It’s like a helping a sweet old lady to cross the street…just don’t be rough on the controls or she’ll lean back…hard.” Those 300 gallon wingtip tanks made her quite slugish in roll and the flow around the upper radome required you to use “top rudder” in turns.
Nice article…brought back lots of memories.
Jim Swift
By Jim Swift on Nov 14, 2009 at 1:40 pm