What was the first four-engine aircraft certified in post-war Germany?

The most successful version of the Super Constellation was the L-1049G, known as the Super G, of which 99 units were sold, 38 of them conversions of L-1049Es. The first L-1049G flew on 7 December 1954 and entered scheduled service with Northwest Airlines in January 1955. To extend its range it could carry wingtip tanks of 2,270 litres each.

The newly re-founded Lufthansa chose the Super G to return to long-haul routes. Its D-ALAK received its type certificate on 1 April 1955, becoming the first four-engine aircraft in post-war Germany. On 8 June 1955 Lufthansa inaugurated transatlantic traffic with an L-1049G on the Düsseldorf–Shannon (Ireland)–New York route. The D-ALAK did not have a long life: it crashed in January 1959 while on approach to Rio de Janeiro.

The Super Constellation was born from stretching the original Constellation: in 1950 Lockheed added 5.59 m to the fuselage, reinforced the structure, fitted square windows and more powerful Wright R-3350 engines, and the new model first flew on 13 October of that year. After the G came, in 1957, the last version of the L-1049 series, the L-1049H, designed for mixed cargo-and-passenger transport. During the second half of the 1950s the Super Constellation was one of the most advanced piston aircraft on oceanic routes, before being displaced by jets. The first batch, of only 24 aircraft, went to Eastern Air Lines (14) and TWA (10), and the customers for the L-1049C included Air France, KLM, Qantas, and Trans-Canada Air Lines. From 1950 to November 2023 the L-1049 accumulated 111 total losses.