This illustrated history “recounts the unusual and sometimes dramatic development and operational career of one of the twentieth century’s most iconic airliners” (Aviation History Magazine). Clarence “Kelly” Johnson’s design for the Lockheed Constellation, known affectionately as the Connie, produced one of the world’s most iconic airliners. Lockheed had been working on the L-044 Excalibur, a four-engine, pressurized airliner, since 1937. In 1939, Trans World Airlines, at the instigation of major stockholder Howard Hughes, requested a forty-passenger transcontinental aircraft with a range of 3,500 miles, well beyond the capabilities of the Excalibur design. TWA’s requirements led to the L-049 Constellation, designed by Lockheed engineers including Kelly Johnson and Hall Hibbard. Between 1943 and 1958, Lockheed built 856 Constellations in numerous models at its Burbank, California, factory—all with the same distinctive and immediately recognizable triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped fuselage. The Constellation was used as a civil airliner and as a military and civilian air transport, seeing service in the Berlin and the Biafran airlifts. Three of them served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower. After World War II, TWA’s transatlantic service began on February 6, 1946 with a New York-Paris flight in a Constellation. Then, on June 17, 1947, Pan Am opened the first-ever scheduled round-the-world service with their L-749 Clipper America. With revealing insight into the Lockheed Constellation, the renowned aviation historian Graham M. Simons examines its design, development, and service, both military and civil. In doing so, he reveals the story of a design which, as the first pressurized airliner in widespread use, helped to usher in affordable and comfortable air travel around the world. “Simons makes good use of black-and-white and color photographs of Constellations in various airline markings and includes colorful airline brochures and marketing posters featuring the aircraft.” —Air Power History

Designed just before World War II after special instructions from the American tycoon Howard Hughes, the Lockheed Constellation is celebrated today as one of the finest flying machines ever built. As a civilian aircraft, it has been the first airliner able to cross the Atlantic Ocean non stop, but it also has had a respectable military career, thanks to its brilliant characteristics which allowed it to fulfill missions of electronic warfare and AWACS.

The first volume in an exciting new series about piston-engined civil airliners of the 1940s and '50s, this book uses the best archival material available from Lockheed and several U.S. airlines to illustrate the complexity of building what was arguably the most stylish piston-engined airliner ever -- the majestic Constellation. Created in response to a requirement issued by the flamboyant owner of TWA, Howard Hughes, in late 1939, the Constellation was soon ordered by other airlines due to its unmatched ability to fly non-stop from the East Coast to the West Coast at a constant 300 miles per hour. All the major prototype, pre-production, and civil service variants are shown in production ar the Lockheed plant in California, and in service with various operators around the globe. Period color photography is also included, featuring Lockheed and airline advertisements. Detailed captions and a concise narrative outline the manufacturing procedures, while appendices includes comprehensive production batch lists, performance data, and a double-page cutaway.

The first of a new series that looks at classic postwar airliners. This volume charts the design and development of the Lockheed Constellation, from pre-war proposals to the sophisticated outcome. It includes a technical walk-round and descriptions of variants, and also a production list.

The photos in this edition are black and white. In 1943 the Lockheed Model 49 Constellation was the fastest and most modern airliner in the world. They were purchased by the USAAC as C-69s and in 1948 the larger more capable Model 749 was purchased as the C-121A. This early Naval Fighters Series volume first published in 1983 covers the USAAC/USAF C-121A, the Navy PO-1W/WV-1 AEW version of the Model 749 from 1949, the stretched Model 1049 Navy transport R7O-1/R7V-1 from 1952, the Air Force Model 1049 versions C-121C/EC-121S/C-121G/AC-121/EC-121R, Navy WV-2/EC-121K AEW and Air Force EC-121C/EC-121D AEW platforms, and the experimental WV-2E/EC-121L AEW aircraft and the turbo-prop R7V-2/YC-121F transport. Book includes brief Navy squadron histories, detail drawings, and essays on flying the Connie, Vietnam, College Eye/Big Eye, 552nd AEW, Bat Cat and AEWBARRONPAC.

September 1962: On a moonless night over the raging Atlantic Ocean, a thousand miles from land, the engines of Flying Tiger flight 923 to Germany burst into flames, one by one. Pilot John Murray didn’t have long before the plane crashed headlong into the 20-foot waves at 120 mph. As the four flight attendants donned life vests, collected sharp objects, and explained how to brace for the ferocious impact, 68 passengers clung to their seats: elementary schoolchildren from Hawaii, a teenage newlywed from Germany, a disabled Normandy vet from Cape Cod, an immigrant from Mexico, and 30 recent graduates of the 82nd Airborne’s Jump School. They all expected to die. Murray radioed out “Mayday” as he attempted to fly down through gale-force winds into the rough water, hoping the plane didn’t break apart when it hit the sea. Only a handful of ships could pick up the distress call so far from land. The closest was a Swiss freighter 13 hours away. Dozens of other ships and planes from 9 countries abruptly changed course or scrambled from Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall, all racing to the rescue—but they would take hours, or days, to arrive. From the cockpit, the blackness of the Atlantic grew ever closer. Could Murray do what no pilot had ever done—“land” a commercial airliner at night in a violent sea without everyone dying? And if he did, would rescuers find any survivors before they drowned or died from hypothermia in the icy water? The fate of Flying Tiger 923 riveted the world. Bulletins interrupted radio and TV programs. Headlines shouted off newspapers from London to LA. Frantic family members overwhelmed telephone switchboards. President Kennedy took a break from the brewing crises in Cuba and Mississippi to ask for hourly updates. Tiger in the Sea is a gripping tale of triumph, tragedy, unparalleled airmanship, and incredibly brave people from all walks of life. The author has pieced together the story—long hidden because of murky Cold War politics—through exhaustive research and reconstructed a true and inspiring tribute to the virtues of outside-the-box-thinking, teamwork, and hope.