|
|
The Legendary Lockheed ConstellationBy Stephan Wilkinson | Aviation History | 8 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post The Constellation was arguably more successful as a military airplane than it ever was as an airliner. The USAAF, USAF and Navy bought and used nearly 40 percent of all the Constellations ever manufactured, and Connies were the direct predecessors of today’s AWACS jets and pioneered just about every form of airborne electronic reconnaissance. The alphabet nearly ran out of letters to designate C-121 variants—RC, EC, NC, VC and YC, from A models right through to Js, Ks and the Navy “Willy Victors,” WV-2s. Constellations carried the first of the enormous rotating radomes—rotodomes—that preceded the flying saucers atop 707-derived Boeing E-3s that today routinely prowl Middle Eastern skies. Their early analog electronics could consume enough electricity to power an entire town of 20,000 people. Constellations remained in service with the U.S. Navy until June 1982 (six years after the Concorde went into supersonic airline service), and were operated by India’s navy until 1984. Subscribe Today
The Navy was responsible for the complex but enormously powerful Wright R-3350 Turbo Compound engine, which led to successful development of the originally underpowered L-1049 stretched Super Constellation. The engines were initially intended for the Lockheed P2V-4 Neptune, a late version of the Navy’s primary long-range patrol bomber. They are sometimes referred to as being “turbocharged,” but in fact the power plant’s exhaust-driven turbines had nothing to do with pressurizing induction air. Each engine had three power-recovery turbines that fed power back into the engine through long lateral shafts geared directly (via a fluid coupling) to the crankshaft. The torque of the engine’s PRTs added 150 hp, uprating it to 3,400 hp. Other than modified engines in Reno racers, the only more powerful production piston radial was the far larger, 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360, at 3,500 hp. It was a source of some amusement (or terror, depending on one’s anxiety level) to L-1049H and later L-1649 passengers that because of the exhaust constriction, turbo compound engines spouted long tails of flame from their exhaust pipes, particularly at night. Indeed, Lockheed would fit stainless steel leading edges to the wings adjacent to the nacelles to prevent damage from the big blowtorches. The ultimate Constellation is popularly considered to be the Model 1649A, though the Starliner (which is what Lockheed named it) was in fact a new design, with an entirely different, far longer wing than the true Constellation/Super Constellation line had. Oddly, the new straight-taper, high-aspect-ratio wing had not a modern laminar-flow airfoil but a thin NACA airfoil like the one on Boeing’s B-17s and 314 Clipper flying boats. The Starliner (TWA called theirs Jetstreams, perhaps to suggest it had something in common with the already-proliferating Boeing 707) was the largest American piston airliner ever produced and the fastest by far at long-range cruise power settings, but it was a failure. Just 44 were manufactured, including Lockheed’s own prototype. It was the company’s only unprofitable series in the Constellation/C-121/Starliner evolution. By 1961, even the newest Constellations were beginning to move to second-tier airlines and then to the likes of Royal Air Burundi, Slick Airways, Flying Tiger, Pakistan International and Britair East Africa. Because many Connies were low-time airframes when they were retired by the big airlines in favor of 707s and DC-8s, they were particularly desirable to a variety of users. Many Constellations became freighters, crop sprayers, travel club ships, charter birds, firebombers and smugglers. One was even specially equipped to airdrop bundles of marijuana and was openly tested in Arizona with hay bales, after being given a dispensation by the FAA for “agricultural flights.” The Rolling Stones used an ex-Eastern 749 for part of their famous 1972 U.S. tour, emblazoned with big tongue-and-lips Stones logos. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: Aircraft, Aviation History, Flight Technology
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||
What is HistoryNet?The HistoryNet.com is brought to you by the Weider History Group, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. If you are interested in a specific history subject, try searching our archives, you are bound to find something to pique your interest. |
From Our Magazines
|
Weider History Group |
Weider History Network: HistoryNet | Armchair General | Great History | Achtung Panzer! Terms of Use | Copyright © 2009 Weider History Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. |
||
Loading ...
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