Howard Hughes and the L-1649A
In 1957 Howard Hughes is reported to have flown a new 1649A Connie from Nassau in the Bahamas nonstop to Los Angeles. He had "borrowed" the plane from his airline, TWA, for awhile and was returning it after flying it around the Bahamas for a month or two with only a flight engineer aboard.
The interesting part is that he flew the transcon flight alone -- no copilot and no flight engineer. My question is, on a Connie, how could he do this? With engine controls, pressurization, fuel, electrics -- everything on the engineer's panel, wouldn't he have to leave the pilot's seat constantly to reset the various controls?
I find it hard to believe he flew the ship alone for such a great distance. Any old Connie pilots or engineers who can chime in on this?