The Lockheed Super Constellation: The Airliner That Ruled the 1950s
Video from the channel DroneScapes about Lockheed Constellation, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 48:52. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
An aviation documentary presented by radio and television broadcaster Arthur Godfrey, a naval reserve pilot. It begins with a replica of the Wright brothers' aircraft, which flew at 40-50 miles per hour with only a single oil pressure gauge, and with Eddie Rickenbacker's Spad, commander of the 94th Aero Squadron in the First World War, who flies one of these aircraft again. The central part follows, from the cockpit of the Lockheed Super Constellation, a regular Eastern Airlines flight, flight 601 from New York to Miami, with Captain Dick Merrill: weather briefing, dispatch and flight plan, checklists (39 items before start-up), start-up of the four engines, taxiing, take-off, cruise, navigation by omnidirectional radio beacon, landing on runway 17 at Miami and braking with propeller pitch reversal.
It then explains an instrument approach using ILS and ground-controlled approach (GCA) radar. It shows the aircraft flying on three engines with one feathered, Godfrey's Navion light aircraft and DC-3 at Leesburg, Virginia, and the Lockheed F-94C Starfire interceptor, with climbs with and without afterburner. Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier breaks the sound barrier in a dive started at 45,000 feet, filmed with a tail-mounted camera.
When and where it was filmed
It was filmed in the year of the 50th anniversary of powered flight, that is, 1953. It shows Eastern Airlines facilities in New York and Miami, as well as Leesburg airfield. The channel that published it adds its own opening and closing presentation.
Context
The Super Constellation is described as 114 feet long, with a 123-foot wingspan and four compound engines of 3,250 hp each, with a maximum speed of about 400 miles per hour. Also featured is Eastern's twin-engined Silver Falcon, a 40-seat aircraft with a cruising speed of about 300 miles per hour, which replaces the DC-3 on connecting routes. The film ends with a call to enlist in military aviation. Rickenbacker announces commercial jets that will link New York and Miami in two hours, and helicopters that will take passengers from downtown terminals to the airport.