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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1659.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 June 1952 721 TRANSATLANTIC VARIETY The Post-war Products of Lockheed Air craft: Successful Military and Civil Ventures By MAURICE F. ALLWARD MOST American aircraft companies passed through a difficult time just after the war. Government orders were rapidly reduced to those appropriate to peace time and, before long, production lines were completing one aeroplane for every fifty turned out during the war. The big Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, of Burbank, California, was no exception; but, by pursuing a policy of not putting all their energies into one hangar, they contrived to produce a surprisingly wide variety of aircraft that enabled them to ride the lean years relatively easily. Lockheeds have, in fact, probably developed one of the widest ranges of civil and military types since the end of the war. Big naval transport, sleek civil airliner, long-range patrol bomber or swift fighter—Lockheeds have produced them all, as the following list shows : Constitution, Constellation, Neptune, Shooting Star and F-90. Of these, the best known is, of course, the Constellation. It has been said that a measure of the greatness of an aircraft lies in its capacity for development and on this score the "Connie" is undoubtedly one of the world's outstanding types. Originally designed as a luxury airliner; converted and developed during the war as a troop carrier; and reconverted into an airliner when the war ended—that is the beginning of the Constellation story. Things could not have worked out better for Lockheeds, for the vast amount of money and time expended in getting all the "bugs" out of the Con stellation troop carrier did, at the same time, get most of them out of the Constellation airliner. Thus, soon after the end of the war, Lockheeds were able to offer a modern air liner already tried and proven and this, coupled with a well- The 184,000-/6 Constitution in company with a Beechcraft. The wing spans, respectively, are 189ft 1/n and 47ft 7/n. planned and vigorous sales campaign, led up to the present situation where Lockheeds have delivered, or have orders for, over 400 Constellations. An amazing figure ! Although the degree of comfort in the early post-war "reconverted" Constellations was good, it was not up to the standard that had been envisaged when the aircraft was first designed and so changes were made to improve the comfort of passengers; and at the same time the performance was improved by the fitting of more powerful engines. This was the Model 649. A development, the 749, is identical except that new outer wings are fitted, holding an additional 500 gallons of fuel to give a maximum range of over 5,000 miles at 220 m.p.h. This is the famous Gold Plate Constellation. The latest version is the Model 1049, or Super Con stellation. With the fuselage lengthened by 18ft to accom modate up to 97 passengers, the 1049 has a cruising speed of 327 m.p.h. at 21,500ft. Present models have four Wright Cyclone C.18CA (or CB) engines developing 2,700 h.p. As the operation of this improved type requires little extra in the way of crew-training and airport equipment, it was to be expected that it would be viewed favourably by many of the airlines using earlier versions and thinking of re-equipping their fleets. The fact that the 1049 had been designed for easy conversion—first to compound power units, and later to turboprops when these become available commercially—was also an obvious sales feature; but even the most optimistic executive in the Lockheed sales department must have been overwhelmed by the actual response. This was such that Lockheeds had orders for over 60 of these new £500,000 Super Connies before the first one had flown. Variants include a civil cargo version, the Model 1049B— able to carry up to 36,000 lb of freight for 2,000 miles—and two military sisters, designated by the Navy R7V-1 and by the Air Force C-121C. The Navy has already placed an initial order for two R7V-2S, powered by Pratt and Whitney T-34 turboprops, for development purposes. The second quite different type of aircraft developed by Lockheeds since the end of the war is the huge double-decked Constitution. With a span of 190ft, it is surpassed in size in the U.S. only by the Convair bombers and Boeing YB-52, XC-99 and the Hercules flying boat. Fully loaded it weighs 184,000 lb, or some 50 tons less than the Bristol Brabazon. Although it was recently re-engined with four 3,500 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Wasp Majors, it is still underpowered and —like the Brabazon—will not be able to reveal its real capabilities until turboprops are fitted. The Constitution is a truly magnificent monument to aerodynamic research and constructional ingenuity, but, as in the case of the Brabazon, the wealth of time and money lavished on its creation will
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