Lockheed Constellation. The Many Lives Of "Connie" | Kelly Johnson's Early Involvement

The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. Among the first aircraft that involved Kelly Johnson, the genius behind Skunk Works.
The first four-engine aircraft was produced by Lockheed. Upon its first flight, the chief test pilot remarked, "This machine works so well that you don't need me anymore!"

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The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its pressurized cabin enabled commercial passengers to fly well above the worst weather for the first time, thus significantly improving the general safety and ease of air travel.

Several different models of the Constellation series were produced, although they all featured the distinctive triple-tail and dolphin-shaped fuselage. Most were powered by four 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones. In total, 856 were produced between 1943 and 1958 at Lockheed's plant in Burbank, California, and used as both a civil airliner and as a military and civilian cargo transport. Among their famous uses was during the Berlin and the Biafran airlifts. Three served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of which is featured at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

With the onset of World War II, the TWA aircraft entering production was converted to an order for C-69 Constellation military transport aircraft, with 202 aircraft intended for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). The first prototype (civil registration NX25600) flew on January 9, 1943, a short ferry hop from Burbank to Muroc Field for testing. Edmund T. "Eddie" Allen, on loan from Boeing, flew the left seat, with Lockheed's own Milo Burcham as the copilot. Rudy Thoren and Kelly Johnson were also aboard.

Lockheed proposed the model L-249 as a long-range bomber. It received the military designation XB-30, but the aircraft was not developed. A plan for a very long-range troop transport, the C-69B (L-349, ordered by Pan Am in 1940 as the L-149), was canceled. A single C-69C (L-549), a 43-seat VIP transport, was built in 1945 at the Lockheed-Burbank plant.

The C-69 was mostly used as a high-speed, long-distance troop transport during the war. In total, 22 C-69s were built before the end of hostilities, but seven of these never entered military service, as they were converted to civilian L-049s on the assembly line. The USAAF canceled the remainder of the order in 1945. Some aircraft remained in USAF service into the 1960s, serving as passenger ferries for the airline that relocated military personnel, wearing the livery of the Military Air Transport Service. At least one of these airplanes had rear-facing passenger seats.

General characteristics

Crew: 5 flight crew, varying cabin crew
Capacity: typically 62–95 passengers (109 in high-density configuration) / 18,300 lb (8,301 kg) payload
Length: 116 ft 2 in (35.41 m)
Wingspan: 126 ft 2 in (38.46 m)
Height: 24 ft 9 in (7.54 m)
Wing area: 1,654 sq ft (153.7 m2)
Aspect ratio: 9.17
Airfoil: root: NACA 23018; tip: NACA 4412
Empty weight: 79,700 lb (36,151 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 137,500 lb (62,369 kg)
Zero-lift drag coefficient: CD,0 = 0.0211
Drag area: 34.82 sq ft (3.235 m2)
Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-3350-DA3 Duplex-Cyclone 18-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,250 hp (2,420 kW) each
Propellers: 3-bladed constant-speed propellers
Performance

Maximum speed: 377 mph (607 km/h, 328 kn)
Cruise speed: 340 mph (550 km/h, 300 kn) at 22,600 ft (6,888 m)
Stall speed: 100 mph (160 km/h, 87 kn)
Range: 5,400 mi (8,700 km, 4,700 nmi)
Service ceiling: 24,000 ft (7,300 m)
Rate of climb: 1,620 ft/min (8.2 m/s)
Lift-to-drag: 16
Wing loading: 87.7 lb/sq ft (428 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.094 hp/lb (0.155 kW/kg)

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