Lockheed L-049 Constellation
The aircraft that is crowding the AT-7 in the previous shot is a Lockheed L-049 Constellation, the first model of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. During WWII, the military had priority and Lockheed produced the C-69 military transport based on the same design. Earlier in 1939, Howard Hughes, who owned TWA, meet with Lockheed executives pushing them to produce an aircraft design which would be a quantum leap over designs in progress at the time. Toward the end of the war, Hughes (together with Ava Gardner) piloted the second production C-69 from Burbank to Washington By November 1945, 89 aircraft had been ordered by TWA, Delta, Capital, Braniff, Pan American World Airways, Air France, KLM, BOAC, El Al and other less-known airlines. A total of 856 Constellation variants were built with a few still airworthy and used in air shows. In those days, "Connies" cost from $685,000 to $720,000, depending on equipment; in today’s dollars, that’s $ million to $8 million — the price of a midsize business jet. TWA and Pan Am, however, managed to buy four war surplus C-69s for $20,000 each and another two for $40,000 apiece — then retrofit them to L-049 specs.
Size: 7118px × 4745px
Location: Tucson, AZ
Photo credit: © B. David Cathell / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: -049, air, aircraft, airways, al, american, arizona, az, bdavid, boac, braniff, capital, commercial, constellation, delta, el, france, klm, lockheed, museum, pan, panam, passenger, pima, space, tucson, twa, world
