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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0644.PDF
433 F LI G Hi T APP.TI. 14TH, The largest aircraft yet to arrive at Loidort Airport, Pan American's Boeing Stratorruiser Flying Cloud is over It towers fully 38 ft above the tarmac. Double-Decked Clipper Pan American Demonstrate the First Boeing Stratocruiser in this Country FOR £375,000 one would expect what our Americanfriends might term "a lot of airplane." Mindful ofthis outlay, and briefed with due thoroughness by Pan American World Airways, we boarded Clipper Flying Cloud at London Airport last week to make the acquaint- ance of this, the first Boeing Stratocruiser to visit the United Kingdom. An hour in the air—across to the French coast at 20,000ft, and a return over London—left a firm impression that the Stratocruiser, or Boeing Model 377, is a remarkable aircraft. The tabulated data will support this view. The physical bulk of the machine is best appreciated not from tarmac level, but from the main cabin on the upper deck. Lounging in one of 53 chairs, one looks down on Yorks, Lancastrians and other fre- quenters of London Airport, noting, at the same time, the relatively small area of the 141ft wing and the looun- ing masses of nacelles for the 28-cylm- der Pfcatt and Whitney Wasp Major -engines,With their high-set thrust-lines. On his way to tM- bridge, Captain R. D. Fordyce - gave the take-off weight for our brief trip as. 125,000; lb —a full 17,500 lb under the present maximum permissible figure. The water-injection system, enabling all of 3,500 h.p. to be taken from each engine, would certainly not be re- quired. At 2,700 r.p.m. and 3,250 h.p. per engine, we were In the extreme bo the Stratocruiser cockpit has all major controls within easy reach of the right hand of the pilot and the left hand of '.he second pilot. The flight engineer's panel is in the right foreground. Cruising, the noise level seemed' somewhat below average, though at full throttle the Pratt and Whitneys left no doubt that they are the most powerful transport engines extant. It had been explained to us that at low speeds,, such as in taxying, the square-tipped airscrews, with theii four, hollow, pressed-steel blades, would give off a warbl- ing sound, as of chirping birds ; this, however, was not audible, due, perhaps, to the pre-take-off chatter of sixty- odd passengers. Tiny holes in the blade tips, to allow drainage of condensed moisture, are responsible for the sibilant note. Before making, the rounds we heard the latest Strata-
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