Super Connie...

[recycled sixtie]

Found this on Facebook. Might be of interest to Super Connie fans.
Project Mustang LLC shared Avions de France

[rattlsnak]

No linky....

[recycled sixtie]

I tried to put it in but here it is. Project Mustang LLC shared Avions de France video May 31 at 4.45am

[recycled sixtie]

Another ink.
https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=dExlu488bM4

[billybek]

[recycled sixtie]

Thanks BillyB

[tcar]

Beautiful... flames out of stacks. At cruise the flames are blue.

The Lockheed Constellation was easily the most beautiful piston airliner. Ever.

TWA flew them when I was a kid... to Albuquerque.

They called the Super Connie the 'Super G'.

They were more expensive to build than the DC-6/7 as every fuselege cross section is different (unlike the cigar of the DC's).

And Ike's 'Air Force One' was a Connie "The Columbine". (Yes, the term AF-1 had not been coined then.)



Good stuff, in those days, Continental was flying Vickers Viscount turboprops to ALB too, and the old Frontier was moving away from the DC-3 to the Convair 340.

[recycled sixtie]

Hey Marv Evans did you fly the Super Connie? If so tell us how it flew?

[herr_oberst]

Jeez, that is beautiful. Makes me nostalgic for something. Beauty for beauty's sake?

(I doubt if in 60 years people will be lining up ten deep to watch the 787 Dreamliner approach the runway....)

[fingpilot]

My first commercial airplane ride was TWA Super Connie sleeper LAX to Idlewild. I spent the night watching the country slide by under the wing. Every enroute climb turned the blue exhaust flame yellow. Watched the sunrise over the Great Lakes.

[rick-l]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Beauty for beauty's sake?

Nope. I read the history, that is all for function.

3 vertical stabilizers so it would fit in existing hangers. The fuselage tilted up in the back to get the tail out of the prop wash. The nose tilted down to keep the nose strut for being too long.

The R-3350 engines were a reliability problem. It used a supercharger for the intake and the turbo added to the output power. It was called a Power Recovery Turbine but some mechanics called it a Parts Recovery Turbine.

[Evans, Marv]

Nope, never flew in one. The closest I got was picking my girl friend up when she flew back from college in one. I always thought they were beautiful planes.

[gamin]

Thanks much for awakening good memories. I flew the Navy version back in the day and was also type rated. Wonderful aircraft. Not so wonderful engines. I got a lot of engine out time. And it was more often than not failure of a PRT. They did sound good at takeoff. Cockpit was pretty tight.

[jcommin]

One of my favorite looking planes. It looks fast standing still.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by gamin

Thanks much for awakening good memories. I flew the Navy version back in the day and was also type rated. Wonderful aircraft. Not so wonderful engines. I got a lot of engine out time. And it was more often than not failure of a PRT. They did sound good at takeoff. Cockpit was pretty tight.

I know this a bit of a shot in the dark. A guy I worked with was a Connie pilot in the Navy. Did/do you know a gent named Howard (Howie) Price?

One of the best guys ever...he taught me a lot about a lot.

[gamin]

Seahawk - That is not a name that I am familiar with unfortunately.
By the way, I always enjoy reading your posts.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by gamin

Seahawk - That is not a name that I am familiar with unfortunately.

That is too bad. He lives in the Wilmington area. He retired from the Navy and worked as a consultant. I hired him to help me with some knotty problems I was having with Sikorsky. He was brilliant.

Thanks, btw. Sea stories!

[tcar]

Connie was designed by Kelly Johnson (P-38, U2, SR-71 Blackbird, Skunkworks) under the programming of
TWA (Howard Hughes).

The Connie wing was v. similar to that of the P-38.

[Laneco]

A beautiful machine with flames coming out the exhaust... I just absolutely love it. It makes the hair on my arms stand up and my heart race!

I really think there's something wrong with me... I've got some real "different" factory wiring.

angela

[Jolly Amaranto]

In 1958, my Mom, two brothers and I flew from Oakland, California to Okinawa where my Dad was stationed. Stopped in Hawaii, Wake Island and Guam on the way. That was a looooooooong trip.