Lockheed L-049 Constellation TWA
Lockheed L-049 Constellation TWA The Lockheed L-049 Constellation was the first model of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. It entered service as the C-69 military transport aircraft during World War II for the United States Army Air Forces and was the first civilian version after the war. In June 1939, Howard Hughes, the owner of Transcontinental & Western Air (later called Trans World Airlines and abbreviated TWA for short), prepared a meeting at his Hancock Park residence in California. Jack Frye (then president of TWA) attended along with three executives from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation which included designer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. During the meeting Hughes expressed his concerns for what he called the "airliner of the future". Lockheed's airliner under development at the time, the L-044 Excalibur, did not meet the requirements. When the meeting ended with Hughes and Frye, the executives immediately started on improving the Excalibur to meet Hughes' expectations. One idea was to use the Wright R-2600 radials in place of the proposed Wright GR-1820 radials. It was decided instead to start from scratch using some original characteristics of the Excalibur. The design was lengthened from 74 ft 3 in to 95 ft 9 in and the wingspan was increased to 102 ft 4 in. Six different layouts of the cockpit envisaged, including a "Bug-Eye" proposal in which the pilot and co-pilot would sit in separate domes next to each other. In the end, it was decided to use a single curvature design with all-around glazing. Three weeks later, the new design was presented in a different meeting. The design was given the designation L-049 or Excalibur A. The wings of the aircraft were similar to those used by the P-38 Lightning fighter. The aircraft was to be powered by four Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone radials with the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 as the back-up. Re-designed, the Excalibur was to be priced at $450,000, making it the most expensive airliner on the drawing board.
Size: 5976px × 3480px
Location: Pima Air Museum Arizona
Photo credit: © M2 Photography / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -69, -049, air, aircraft, airlines, airplane, army, civilian, constellation, entered, forces, historic, history, ii, line., lockheed, military, model, plane, service, states, tarmac, trans, transport, twa, united, version, vintage, war, war., world
