Lockheed Super Constellation ULTIMATE COCKPIT DOCUMENTARY, many Cams [AirClips full flight series]

Video from the channel Air-Clips.com about Lockheed Constellation, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 51:05. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

The video follows, from the cockpit, a sightseeing flight of the Lockheed Super Constellation HB-RSC, operated by the Super Constellation Flyers Association, which received it in 2004. It departs from Hamburg Airport, where the aircraft had been on static display that morning. After boarding, the checklist and the start-up of the four engines, it takes off from runway 05. It flies over central Hamburg and the Airbus plant at Finkenwerder, follows the Elbe westward at about 300 m altitude and no more than 350 km/h and, after about 30 minutes, turns over Cuxhaven. On the way back, instead of landing, it makes a low, fast pass with the gear up over runway 05, circles the port of Hamburg and lands on runway 15. The planned flight was 75 minutes.

The crew's conversations can be heard during the pre-start checklist (switches, inverters, generators, fuel selectors, cowl flaps and oil cooler flaps) and the engine start-up sequence, counting the blades. The narrator explains that each of the four 18-cylinder Curtiss-Wright Cyclone piston engines produces 3,250 horsepower and can use between 2 and 8 litres of oil per hour. At its maximum take-off weight of almost 50 tonnes, the aircraft would need 1.4 km of runway; Hamburg's runway 05 is 3.2 km long. From the air, several Airbus A380s awaiting delivery can be seen at Finkenwerder. The aircraft measures 35.4 m in length and 37.4 m in wingspan, dimensions comparable to those of an Embraer regional jet.

The aircraft was delivered in 1955 as a C-121C and served as a cargo and medical evacuation transport until its retirement from military service in 1972. It then passed through several civilian owners until the Constellation Historical Society bought it in 1991 and returned it to flight. According to the video, it is the last Super Constellation in the world still carrying passengers, in just 40 seats and only for association members. It flies about 60 hours a year, which require about 10,000 hours of maintenance; sponsors fund its continuous upkeep, including corrosion treatment and improvements to cabin systems. The video also recalls that, after the Second World War, the new Lufthansa chose Hamburg as its main operating base and that in 1955 it had its Super Constellation fleet there, then one of the largest aircraft in the world.