Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
Didn't Aero Spacelines buy all Northwest's surviving Stratocruisers ?
Yes, but they were mostly taken to Mojave, and (slowly) robbed for parts for KC-97/Guppy support. One however, N74603, went on to Tucson, where it sat in the desert effectively complete (including engines and props) for the best part of 25 years, last Northwest Strat flight September 1960, until it was distressingly broken up in 1983, still with faded remnants of its Northwest livery. The tail was cleanly cut off first, for some Guppy support purpose, and this revealed that the interior was still all complete as well.
Here it is a few years before breaking
https://www.airliners.net/photo/Aero...ruiser/1251724
The Israel Air Force kept their ex-Pan Am tanker fleet of them going until 1975, but then broke them up.
There was a series of articles in Propliner magazine quite some years ago, one chapter each issue on each of the operators, which covered all the combinations of propeller types, window shape, etc. Each purchaser effectively took a unique configuration.