Connie

QUEEN OF THE SKIES

The Keed.

The Trans-World Airlines Lockheed Constellation (a Super-G).

In our living-room is a mahogany model of a Trans-World Airlines Lockheed Constellation (pictured), BAR NONE the most beautiful airplane of all time.
The “Connie” was developed in the early ‘40s at the prompting of Howard Hughes, who wanted a better passenger air transport than the lowly Douglas DC-3. The main requirement was a range of 3,500 miles, which was a huge jump. Hughes was a major stockholder in TWA.
The Connie was also the first passenger air-transport with a fully pressurized cabin in extensive use. (Actually the Boeing 307 was the first in the late ‘30s, but only 10 were built.)
Fortunately, I’m old enough to have been around when the Connie was in use.
In the late ‘40s my father used to take us to Philadelphia Airport, which at that time was little more than a large concrete apron for airliners to park and load/unload.
Eventually (1950-1953) Philadelphia built a proper air-terminal with two piers connected by a concourse.
Each pier could accommodate 10-12 airplanes, 5-6 per side. Trans-World Airlines had the north side of Pier B, and at that time non-fliers were allowed out on Pier B where we could watch the activities.
Connies would taxi up to the pier and shut down their motors. A boarding stairway would be wheeled up, and the plane would unload.
Stubby red fuel-trucks would appear to load the wing-tanks with av-gas.
Then the departing passengers would clamber up the stairway and get on the plane.
Everything was out in the open; this was before jetways. The only time you see that stairway anymore is the hatless president boarding Air Force One.
Then the door would get closed, the stairway wheeled back, and the motors would light amidst huge gouts of flame and clouds of oil-smoke.
A man was always standing by with a fire-extinguisher.
Once lit, the airliner would taxi away to take off for destinations unknown.
We always gravitated to the TWA terminal, perhaps because their airplanes were the prettiest, and mostly Connies.
Pier A had an outside observation-deck on top, and once my grandfather forked over the exorbitant 50¢ so we could go up to it.
I will never forget it; and can still see it (and hear it).
An Eastern Airlines Connie taxied onto the warmup area, and wicked its engines up to full-throttle.
It was a marvelous cascade of sound.
Then the Connie took off — another marvelous cascade of sound.
In 1956 my parents took the vacation of a lifetime: flew out to Phoenix, Arizona in a TWA Super-Connie.
We watched as they boarded the plane, and then a motor bit the dust so they had to land in Albuquerque.
The motors (four Wright R-3350-DA3 Turbo Compound) on the Connie had a reputation of being flaky — in fact, the Connie was called the best three-engine airliner ever.
Supposedly the motor caught fire. Perhaps. I can imagine a small fire from leaking oil (Connies had fire extinguishment in the motor nacelle), but a major fire would bring down the plane.
The Connie was the best there was; incredible grace and style combined with immense power.
I have a video-tape of the Lockheed Constellation. Apparently a few are still flying.
They show one taking off, and then it flies over at about 300 feet. I have played that tape over-and-over.
The best part is the model never cost me a cent. The place I bought it from has never charged me for it.
For info, the three-rudder tail was to get the vertical-stabilizer area needed without raising hanger-height.
Over the years I have been to numerous airshows, most with antique airplanes.
—So many the airshows have become rather boring; so that I haven’t gone to any in a while.
The next airshow I go to will have a Connie in it.