EC-121 Super Constellation
 

Here's a sight for sore eyes.. Had a trip in one of these classic Lockheed designs up at Kef in the mid-70s..(except I think it would have been the T model with the dorsal mounted radar height finder) The crews were reservists and were worth a guinea-a-minute..

That nose wheel leg always intrigued me..

Love that sound!

I understand similar versions owned by the US Navy frequented Blackbushe up to Aug 1960 when it was forcibly and abruptly closed by the government; (the only way they could get the airlines to move to Gatwick with it's far worse weather record) after the US Navy invested a lot of money developing a base there.
See Home | Blackbushe Airport - The one-stop Forum for photos of them in several threads.
As can be seen in the video, it's rate of climb left a lot to be desired. When I did my Area Radar training back in the early '70s, one of the tracks used in the simulator was a Connie departing from Heathrow to go transatlantic; I think we all made the mistake of not asking it to expedite its climb and it would disappear somewhere near Lyneham having gone below radar coverage!

That's a significant misfire around 6.35 from one of the starboard engines during the takeoff run. Too much boost ? Oh, good old Wright Turbo-Compounds, as ever.

Ah yes, the Connie.
Living not far from Sydney airport, they used to come quite close by my place.
Fully loaded with fuel, pax and mail, on climb-out, those glorious 3350s would rattle the window panes and interfere with the television reception.

We've a restored, operational C121 (VH-EAG) representing a Qantas L1049 (see HARS website) a bit to the south of here.
Hearing and seeing that beautiful girl on take-off and in flight causes me to go weak at the knees.

When this one landed at Chino, No 3 had been shut down with a lot of oil deposited along the aft fuselage as I recall.

I visited Camarillo in 1999 - it's great to know that the two Connies there at the time eventually flew out; the other is now Breitling's well known HB-RSC.

Must get me a trip in Lufthansa's Starliner when they get it going...

Thanks for that nostalgia when I was a kid - late 50s - Dad worked for a firm based at Colnbrook, between Slough and Heathrow. Saturday mornings he often had to go to the factory for a sales meeting - and I would go with him in the Ford Popular we had then, and spend the morning standing outside the office watching, smelling and hearing a succession of piston engined airliners on final approach at some fairly low height. Brilliant

In the mid-seventies valuable and attractive items were always transported by air; there was too much pilfering on the seaboards. IIRC Miami Airlines/Airways used to be in this freight business using Constellations of varying hues.

We had one shut down in Belize owing to a technical problem so I had a wander over to have a look. The finish was non-descript but you could see the faded, rubbed out, Pan American logos.

Walking around it revealed the tyres were soaked in oil that had dripped down from the engines and when I climbed inside I found the interior was lined with hardboard with hacksawed window accesses but, however, all the cabin call buttons, light, etc were still there.

The flight engineer welcomed me aboard and at that started the No 4 engine. He seemed happy with that and started folding up his paperwork. Conversation established that No 4 was the suspect engine and had been for some time. The requirement was that they could use it to take off and once they were airborne they would feather it and continue on the other three.

About six months later a Connie passing Belize had a No1 prop overspeed. The engine caught fire and threw its propeller off which went into No2 and shredded a blade. This in turn caused No2 engine to break loose on its mounting and rotate into the port wheel well. The captain pushed out a Mayday and headed towards Belize International.

The aircraft arrived at Belize; one engine on fire, the next engine stopped and the undercarriage on that side jammed up. He landed it on one mainwheel and eventually the nosewheel and it slew off the runway into the grass.

At that point the valuable and attractive cargo let loose.

Prime pedigree cattle.

They beat all known records for aircraft evacuation. They went out through the sides, the roof, anywhere, between eight and ten seconds.

The captain was heartbroken. He had amassed tens of thousands of hours flying this particular aeroplane with PanAm around the world with a cabin full of flight attendants and now it had gone.

I don't think he flew again.

[U]Stanwell
Where did you live then, I lived at Eastlakes and on a given day, they came right over the top.


pjac

Yes Geoff, there's something about the Lockheed Constellation that seems to have captured the imagination and affection of so many of us baby-boomers. In my case, the L-749A of SAA/SAL at Lusaka (City), 1953 - 1955.

In those days the South African Airways Connie was king as far as long-haul from the Rhodesias to Europe was concerned. BOAC was operating the Hermes in place of the recently-lost Comet 1. The Argonaut (EAA) and DC-6B (UAT) wouldn't start operations until a bit later, as would the Viscount 748Ds (CAA).

Watching from close quarters the Wright R-3350s firing up in the heat of the tropical dusk was an awesome experience for an impressionable boy. Almost invariably one of the four would demur at the first attempt. Once the others were running, the second attempt inevitably produced a formidable amount of flame and smoke, observed warily by the man with the fire extinguisher. Then the chocks would be waved away, the aircraft would creep forward in its strange, nose-high attitude; the twin, slanting nose-wheels pivoting at the bottom of that long leg and the distinctive empennage swinging round as the big ship left the apron, followed by a wave of hot air and dust. Then there would be the usual delay while the engines were run up at the far end of the airfield.

Today's spotters, accustomed to the modest climb angle of a heavily-laden jet, might find the piston equivalent unnerving, particularly after the encouragingly short take-off run. What I later knew to be "WAT" was generally the limiting factor for take-off performance, particularly at African altitudes and temperatures; the real inspiration for the old chestnut about the curvature of the earth.

In 1955 we finally flew to London in one. Well, that was me hooked!

Randwick - near the Avoca St ridge.
You'd catch them when they were using 07, of course - and they still hadn't gained much in the way of altitude by then, either. :ok:

Arriving in Chino
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62-8gD6npG8

All engines were working nicely on arrival. Despite a slight leak from No.3

SyB :zzz:

My main memory of my flight in one at Keflavik was how quiet and civilised (as in 'odour-free') the environment was - compared to the Shack.
The reservists who flew the Connie were a superb bunch.. with some real characters among them. I remember their final rousing TDY at Lossie (must have been around 1978) - & finishing up in the Bothy at some ungodly hour..

My only memory of the EC-121 (apart from watching Connies flying overhead when I was younger) was on the first visit by the USN one to Lossie/8 Sqn. On a short demo trip we were impressed at how much more kit they had, how different/easy it was to fly compared with the Shack, and the final show stopper was this wonderful thing in the galley called a 'microwave oven' that the crew had self fitted! At this time they were unknown in the UK, and in fact it must have been nearly 10 years before the first very expensive ones appeared in Curry's!

One's memory is not what it was (or ever was) SyB!

As a 14 year old enthusiast (OK, spotter) in 1978 who'd never seen a Connie, I was dozing in my pit early one morning and heard the sound of radials rumbling overhead.

Radials were still fairly common, so instead of dashing to the window and peering out, I stayed abed and missed seeing an EC-121 on its way to Germany.

Had to wait until Vern Raeburn bought his Connie over to the UK in the 1990s before I got to actually see one fly.

Slight Thread Drift
I was in Flight Planning at El Adem c 1964 (we were going to Nairobi) and there was an Ace Freighters crew who were flying a Constellation and were taking freight under some MoD contract to Aden.
The Nav type guy helped himself to several copies of every Flight Planning chart available plus numerous topos and on the chart he was using put a straight edge from El Adem to Aden and worked on that ( no Nasser's Corner avoidance etc.)
Met the same crew,in what was Salisbury, a few weeks later

My first ever flight was in a Super Constellation, a student charter with KLM from Heathrow to Idlewild (as it then was) with refuelling stops at Shannon and Gander. The return flight was non-stop on a DC7C.

One thing that was unexpected and greatly appreciated by us students was that not only was beer available on board, but it was free!

Someone had a guitar with them and when he started playing most of us migrated towards the party and singalong. This was in the rearmost cabin and after a while we got a request from the flight dech to move forward a bit, as they were finding it difficullt to keep the tail up.

Beleive there was an EC-121 based on Santa Maria in the Azores in support of Concorde flight testing in the mid-70s. There is a non-flying example at the Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field in Topeka, KS. They also have an extensive set of training aids & cutaways of the Turbo-Compound engine.

Has to be the most elegant commercial airliner design ever. Was the one airliner I always wanted to fly on and never got the chance. All United DC6Bs during the 50's.

The Lockheed Constellation family were tough birds to maintain compared to the Douglas DC-4/6/7. They were, in typical Lockheed fashion, far more complicated than the corresponding Douglas products. The L49/C-69 Connie was the first airliner where all the flight controls were hydraulically boost operated. That meant dual hydraulic systems, primary and secondary. You never saw an in-service Connie where the underside of the rear fuselage didn't have red juice on it. Even the VC-121 SAMFLEET VIP aircraft and the VC-121E Presidential. Both systems were powered up full pressure if engines were running.
Douglas flight controls were straight mechanical which made them more work to fly, it is true, but less complex with no boost packages although rigging could be interesting. Lots of cables. Basically, the hydraulic system on a Douglas prop liner was turned off in cruise flight, that is, put into bypass. On the DC-4 it did run at low pressure to power the autopilot servos and the cowl flaps.
The engine installation was much better on the all the Connies. Except for the L049/149, the power section cowling blossomed out easily. Best of all, you had full access from the rear accessory section through firewall doors. The EC-121/WV-2 types were a bit more crowded in the outboard nacelles due to an extra generator/alternator gearbox taking up room.
The Douglas products lacked rear access except through the side panels. Made it tough to reach in through the lines and wire looms to change a starter or a generator. The power section cowling was in three pieces and had to be manhandled off and deposited on racks to work the engine. In a wind, taking off a big piece of cowling could be interesting while standing on a ladder.
Douglas got away without a flight engineers station just giving the engineer a folding jumpseat aft of the pedestal. The Connie flight engineers station had everything there and was certainly easier to monitor. However the whole cockpit on the Connies was more cramped as it was squeezed into the pointy end.
I think the fact that Douglas propliners stayed in use longer is because of their basic simplicity. For sheer beauty however the Connie, particularly the L-1649 Starliner wins, hands down.