BOAC Stratocruisers across the Atlantic
Back to the Strat. It was a customer choice whether you had Hamilton Standard hydraulic propeller control units, or Curtiss electric ones. Some aircraft were later changed from one to the other, I seem to recall the Curtiss electric was the one that fell out of favour. Along with this were the choices of hollow or solid prop blades, again some changed these later. The aircraft had more than its fair share, for its limited production, of runaway props and shed blades.
The props on an R-4360 engine must have been transmitting the most power of any reciprocating engine built, and would have been up against the technology limits of the day. There's an R-4360 on display in the Udvar-Hazy museum at Washington Dulles, what a huge engine.
7 cylinders to a row, with 2 spark plugs to each cylinder. 4 rows of cylinders per engine. 4 engines. That's 224 spark plugs. Apparently there was some shock loading failure mode which required the changing of all an aircraft's spark plugs. An engineer of the era wrote of doing these multiple times, all on weekend overtime, and making enough to put down the deposit on a decent house.
The props on an R-4360 engine must have been transmitting the most power of any reciprocating engine built, and would have been up against the technology limits of the day. There's an R-4360 on display in the Udvar-Hazy museum at Washington Dulles, what a huge engine.
7 cylinders to a row, with 2 spark plugs to each cylinder. 4 rows of cylinders per engine. 4 engines. That's 224 spark plugs. Apparently there was some shock loading failure mode which required the changing of all an aircraft's spark plugs. An engineer of the era wrote of doing these multiple times, all on weekend overtime, and making enough to put down the deposit on a decent house.
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FWIW, the Nav station on the USAF C97 was actually behind the Capt. seat on the aft part of the flight deck.
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Maybe, but the BOAC ones that I worked on had a route to the co-pilots seat BEHIND the engineers panel, he passed the F/Eng and turned left behind the panel, and the Nav followed but turned right down a step ( or Two ? ) to the cubicle on the Starboard side beind the rest of the flight deck.
I have seen that configuration just once and I believe it might have been in a former NWA aircraft? NWA also had the abrieviated FE station that faced forward as I recall. Ditto for UAL which were converted at significant expense when sold to BOAC. Do you recall any of these details?
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I have seen that configuration just once and I believe it might have been in a former NWA aircraft? NWA also had the abrieviated FE station that faced forward as I recall. Ditto for UAL which were converted at significant expense when sold to BOAC. Do you recall any of these details?
Gnome de PPRuNe
There is part of the nose of a Northwest Stratocruiser at the San Diego Air & Space Museum at Gillespie Field. Is it genuine or a KC-97?
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Dave, I think you may be right. I was on the original Gupppy when it was first undergoing the conversion at On Mark down in Van Nuys. I believe it had the more traditional FE set up now that you mention it. In addition the 2nd hand ac that BOAC purchased had square windows which was a UAL config, therefore i suspect that UAL had the abbreviated FE station. I read once where Lockheed did the conversions, but i cannot find that reference anymore.
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.
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Back to the Strat. It was a customer choice whether you had Hamilton Standard hydraulic propeller control units, or Curtiss electric ones. Some aircraft were later changed from one to the other, I seem to recall the Curtiss electric was the one that fell out of favour. Along with this were the choices of hollow or solid prop blades, again some changed these later. The aircraft had more than its fair share, for its limited production, of runaway props and shed blades.
The props on an R-4360 engine must have been transmitting the most power of any reciprocating engine built, and would have been up against the technology limits of the day. There's an R-4360 on display in the Udvar-Hazy museum at Washington Dulles, what a huge engine.
7 cylinders to a row, with 2 spark plugs to each cylinder. 4 rows of cylinders per engine. 4 engines. That's 224 spark plugs. Apparently there was some shock loading failure mode which required the changing of all an aircraft's spark plugs. An engineer of the era wrote of doing these multiple times, all on weekend overtime, and making enough to put down the deposit on a decent house.
The props on an R-4360 engine must have been transmitting the most power of any reciprocating engine built, and would have been up against the technology limits of the day. There's an R-4360 on display in the Udvar-Hazy museum at Washington Dulles, what a huge engine.
7 cylinders to a row, with 2 spark plugs to each cylinder. 4 rows of cylinders per engine. 4 engines. That's 224 spark plugs. Apparently there was some shock loading failure mode which required the changing of all an aircraft's spark plugs. An engineer of the era wrote of doing these multiple times, all on weekend overtime, and making enough to put down the deposit on a decent house.
There is a reason why few air-cooled radials had more than two rows of pistons. Cooling to the last row on the R-4360 was always problematic - there was simply too much blockage, and the air was already well-heated before it got to the fourth row.
Last edited by tdracer; 24th Apr 2020 at 02:33.
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During my research about my fathers career I came across these documents showing his flight in G-ALSA RMA CATHAY Statocruser on his atlantic crossing from New York to London in November 1953. At 0300 hrs the passenger written flight update shows they would pass HM Queen Elizabeth's aircraft on its way from London to Gander. G-ALSA subsequetly crashed on Christmas day 1954 at Prestick and all on board perished. The accident details are on Wikapedia.
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LOONRAT - Thanks for the Memory ! You will notice that the track passed by Weather Ship "C" ( Charlie ) ? This was one of the ships dotted across the Atlantic to make frequent upper atmosphere readings and surface observations for landbound meteorolgists to create aviation weather forecasts, but also transmitted a radio signal from which the Navigator could get a position line bearing, and a VHF service to help with what at times was very scratchy HF reception. Our Captains of that era wouldn't battle with the HF, leaving that to the F/O, but one offered to make the VHF position report for the F/O, it being easier. Unfortunately he had a speech impediment and the exchange went something like this .... Ossshunn stttayyyshunnn Chchcharlie etc. painfully on and on to the embarrassment of the F/O and Flt/Eng listening to him. Finally he finished with Chchchcharlie dddid you ccccopy ? Immediately a languid American voice came back with ... " Jeez, did we copy ? We've carved it into the fxxxxng deck !! "
The weather ships were out there for 3 month voyages ( I believe ? ) and Charlie was a US Coastguard service out of Boston. Radio operators bored out of their minds often asked to speak to one of our stewardesses, and would request their name, and "Vital Statistics", and one year the crew of Charile ran a "beauty contest" amongst stewardesses from the various airlines that they communicated with, and chose one to give a weeks holiday in Boston to meet the crew when they next returned to base. Nice.
Happy Days.
The weather ships were out there for 3 month voyages ( I believe ? ) and Charlie was a US Coastguard service out of Boston. Radio operators bored out of their minds often asked to speak to one of our stewardesses, and would request their name, and "Vital Statistics", and one year the crew of Charile ran a "beauty contest" amongst stewardesses from the various airlines that they communicated with, and chose one to give a weeks holiday in Boston to meet the crew when they next returned to base. Nice.
Happy Days.
We had a thread about O.P. Jones a while back, and in it I copied this anecdote from a book by David Beaty:
One night, the veteran BOAC Captain, O.P. Jones, was approaching the weather ship and picked up his microphone to make contact. However, a sailor was having a conversation with the stewardess on the American aircraft ahead, and all he could hear through the headphones was ... 'I'm twenty two, five feet four inches, thirty-five, twenty-two, thirty-five, blonde hair, blue eyes. My flat is in 16 Brooklyn Park, telephone 5652...' 'Jesus honey, we're practically neighbours. Can you cook!'... 'Everybody says my apple pie...' 'Honey, I'll be right over. That is in three weeks and two days and five hours time.' Eventually there was a break in the conversation and Captain Jones spoke: 'This is Speedbird Easy Love ... I'm fifty-one years old, five feet nine inches tall, forty-two, thirty-two, thirty-five, blue eyes, a torpedo beard ... I'm interested in breeding bull terriers and I live in Sussex, England. My cooking is well known. Do you want my telephone number?' There was an astonished silence before the one word ... 'No-o-o.' 'Then can I,' said Captain Jones, 'have the wind at 19,000 feet?'
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ExSp33db1rd,
That would have been Captain D F Satchwell. I remember flying with him on Britannia 312s in 1963 from London to Manchester, Prestwick and Montreal, a 14.50 hour duty day. To me, as a very young lad, I was amazed the company allowed such an old man to command an aeroplane. Today, of course, I know how wrong I was. He was a delightful man, much given to wearing an old tweed jacket when off duty with leather elbow patches and frayed cuffs. His stammer was appalling, but when the going became tough, it disappeared entirely.
That would have been Captain D F Satchwell. I remember flying with him on Britannia 312s in 1963 from London to Manchester, Prestwick and Montreal, a 14.50 hour duty day. To me, as a very young lad, I was amazed the company allowed such an old man to command an aeroplane. Today, of course, I know how wrong I was. He was a delightful man, much given to wearing an old tweed jacket when off duty with leather elbow patches and frayed cuffs. His stammer was appalling, but when the going became tough, it disappeared entirely.
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If you're ever in Colorado Springs, Colorado, you can have lunch or dinner sitting in an actual KC-97 at a place called "The Airplane Restaurant". It's near the C-Springs airport.
I had lunch there a couple months ago - it was pretty good and even the wife thought it was pretty cool to have lunch sitting in an old KC-97.
I had lunch there a couple months ago - it was pretty good and even the wife thought it was pretty cool to have lunch sitting in an old KC-97.
Gets a bit toasty in the aircraft vice the in-building seats. But yes, it is cool.
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That would have been Captain D F Satchwell.
