The Lockheed Constellation is a four-engine, propeller-driven airliner and transport built by Lockheed at Burbank, California, with a pressurised cabin and a triple tail. The prototype first flew on 9 January 1943 and 856 were built before production ended in 1958, as the Constellation, the longer Super Constellation, the L-1649A Starliner and the military C-121 and EC-121 family. Developed by Lockheed.
The Lockheed Constellation is a four-engine, propeller-driven airliner and transport built by Lockheed at Burbank, California, with a pressurised cabin and a triple tail. Developed by Lockheed.
See Specifications for full detail.
The Lockheed Constellation is a four-engine, propeller-driven airliner and transport built by Lockheed in Burbank, California. The prototype flew on 9 January 1943 and 856 were built between 1943 and 1958. It was the first civil airliner family in widespread use with a pressurised cabin, which let it fly above most bad weather. [1]
The family grew from the L-049 to the longer Super Constellation and the L-1649A Starliner, and the military C-121 and EC-121 versions served the US Navy and Air Force until 1978. [1]
Lockheed had worked on the L-044 Excalibur since 1937. In 1939 TWA, at the urging of its major stockholder Howard Hughes, asked for a 40-passenger transcontinental airliner with a range of 3,500 miles, and that request led to the L-049. Hughes ordered 40 through the Hughes Tool Company on 10 July 1940, then the largest airline order, and Kelly Johnson and Hall Hibbard were among the designers. [1] [2] [3] How far Hughes shaped the design is disputed. Anthony Sampson argues that he influenced the concept and look of the aircraft, while Kelly Johnson disputed that, and Hughes and Frye denied it in a letter of November 1941. [1]
The prototype first flew on 9 January 1943 from Burbank to Muroc Field, with Eddie Allen in the left seat on loan from Boeing and Milo Burcham as copilot. The USAAF wanted 202 C-69s, but only 22 were built before the war ended and the rest of the order was cancelled in 1945. [1] On 17 April 1944 Hughes and TWA president Jack Frye flew the second production C-69 from Burbank to Washington, about 2,300 miles, in 6 hours 57 minutes at an average of about 331 mph. On the way back they stopped at Wright Field in Ohio so that Orville Wright could take his last flight, and he remarked that the Constellation's wingspan was longer than his first flight. [1]
The wing was similar to the P-38 Lightning's, differing mainly in size. The triple tail let the aircraft fit existing hangars, and the aircraft had hydraulically boosted controls and a leading-edge deicing system on the wing and tail. Power came from four Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone 18-cylinder radials of 3,250 hp. [1]
The pressurised cabin carried typically 62 to 95 passengers on the Super Constellation, up to 109 in a high-density layout. The L-049 was originally laid out with 60 seats, 44 on one side of the aisle and four folding four-seat benches on the other. [4]
TWA received the first civil aircraft in 1945 and flew its first transatlantic proving flight from Washington to Paris via Gander and Shannon on 3 and 4 December 1945. Scheduled service from New York to Paris began on 6 February 1946. Pan Am opened the first scheduled round-the-world service on 17 June 1947 with its L-749 Clipper America, and the Pan Am 1 flight kept operating until 1982. Eastern Air Lines holds a New York to Washington record of just over 30 minutes from takeoff to touchdown, set before FAA speed limits applied below 10,000 ft. [1]
The Super Constellation, with a longer fuselage, went to Eastern, TWA, Air France, KLM, Qantas, Trans-Canada, Lufthansa and others, and Cubana was the first Latin American airline to operate it. The L-1649A Starliner followed with 44 built, and on 29 September 1957 a TWA L-1649A flew from Los Angeles to London in 18 hours 32 minutes, about 5,420 miles, the longest nonstop passenger flight by a piston airliner. The first TWA flight from London to San Francisco, on 1 and 2 October 1957, took 23 hours 19 minutes. [1] [4]
The Navy and Air Force flew the type as the C-121, R7V and WV-2, and the WV-2 radar picket became the EC-121 Warning Star. Warning Stars patrolled the Tonkin Gulf during the Vietnam War, and from summer 1967 they carried the QRC-248 IFF transponder to help tell North Vietnamese MiGs from friendly aircraft. [4]
On 15 April 1969 a Navy EC-121M of VQ-1, call sign Deep Sea 129, flew a Beggar Shadow signals intelligence mission from Atsugi with orders to stay at least 50 nautical miles from the North Korean coast. It vanished from radar about 90 nautical miles out after two North Korean MiG-21s took off from near Wonsan, and all 31 aboard, 30 sailors and a Marine, were killed in the largest single loss of US aircrew in the Cold War era and the only combat loss of a US Super Constellation. Nixon ordered no direct retaliation, reconnaissance flights resumed within a week, and Task Force 71, with the carriers Enterprise, Ticonderoga, Ranger and Hornet and the battleship New Jersey, was formed to protect them. [5] Eisenhower used three Constellations as his personal aircraft. Columbine II, 48-0610, was the first Air Force One and was replaced by Columbine III, 53-7885, in 1954, and the earlier Columbine, 48-0614, served when he commanded SHAPE before becoming president. Columbine III has been on display at the National Museum of the USAF since it retired in 1966, and Columbine is at the Pima Air & Space Museum on loan. [4] [1]
The accident record includes the 11 July 1946 TWA training crash near Reading, which killed five of six crew and led to a six-week grounding and over 95 changes to the aircraft. Pan Am Flight 121, Clipper Eclipse, suffered an engine failure and then a fire and crashed in the Syrian desert near Mayadin on 19 June 1947, killing 15. [4] [2]
Heavy losses followed as the fleet grew. A TWA aircraft crashed near Wadi Natrun on 31 August 1950 with 55 killed, a Panair do Brasil aircraft crashed near Porto Alegre on 28 July 1950 with 51 killed, and an Air France aircraft hit a mountain on São Miguel in the Azores on 28 October 1949 with 48 killed. [6] The worst Constellation collision came on 30 June 1956, when TWA Flight 2, the Super Constellation Star of the Seine, and United Flight 718, a DC-7, collided over the Grand Canyon and killed all 128 aboard. Captain Jack Gandy of TWA 2 asked to climb to 21,000 ft to clear thunderstorms, air traffic control could not provide the separation, and it approved a clearance to fly 1,000 ft on top of the cloud, which left the crews to see and avoid each other. Both aircraft were off the airways when they collided at 10:32 am, the DC-7's left wing struck the Constellation's tail, and the Constellation fell into the canyon near Temple Butte. Neither carried a cockpit voice or flight recorder and the airspace had no radar. The Civil Aeronautics Board report of 17 April 1957 blamed the crews for not seeing each other in time, with inadequate traffic advisories contributing, Congress funded air traffic control modernisation that year, and the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 created the Federal Aviation Agency. The crash site was declared a National Historic Landmark on 22 April 2014. [7]
The de Havilland Comet, Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, Convair 880 and Caravelle made the Constellation obsolete, and the long overseas routes were lost first. The last scheduled passenger flight in the contiguous US was a TWA L-749 from Philadelphia to Kansas City on 11 May 1967, and the last in North America was a Western Airlines aircraft from Anchorage to Juneau on 26 November 1968. Propeller Constellations carried overnight freight into the 1990s. [1]
Many survive. Three are airworthy: C-121C 54-0156 as the Breitling Super Constellation HB-RSC at Basel, C-121C 54-0157 with HARS in Australia, and VC-121A 48-0613 Bataan with Lewis Air Legends. N90831, a former C-69, is at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Lufthansa's D-ALIN, which flew Chancellor Adenauer to Moscow in 1955, is at Hermeskeil, Germany, and an L-1649A is part of the TWA Hotel in New York. [1]
The Lockheed Constellation has a top speed of 328 kn (377 mph / 607 km/h).
A total of 856 were built.
No, the Lockheed Constellation has been retired. It retired in 1978.
The Lockheed Constellation first flew on January 9th 1943.
The Lockheed Constellation has a range of 5,400 mi (8,700 km).
Operators included Trans World Airlines, Pan American World Airways, Eastern Air Lines and Air France, plus 5 more.
Three Constellations are airworthy, including the Breitling Super Constellation HB-RSC based at Basel, the HARS aircraft VH-EAG in Australia and the Lewis Air Legends VC-121A Bataan. Sightings are rare and tend to be on airshow days, and the ICAO type code is given here from the Aviation Safety Network listing and not confirmed against Flightradar24.
| Performance | |
| Max Speed | 328 kn (377 mph / 607 km/h) |
|---|---|
| Cruise SpeedCruise Speed — The economical speed an aircraft sustains for the bulk of a flight - lower than maximum speed, chosen for the best balance of time and fuel burn. Glossary → | 340 mph at 22,600 ft |
| RangeRange — How far an aircraft can fly without refuelling. Quoted figures vary with payload, speed and reserves - see also ferry range and combat radius. Glossary → | 5,400 mi |
| Service CeilingService Ceiling — The highest altitude at which an aircraft can still climb at a useful rate (typically 100 ft/min). Above it, the air is too thin to keep climbing meaningfully. Glossary → | 24,000 ft |
| Airframe & Weight | |
| Wingspan | 126 ft 2 in |
| Length | 116 ft 2 in |
| Height | 24 ft 9 in |
| WeightMTOW — Maximum Take-Off Weight - the heaviest an aircraft is certified to be at the start of its take-off run, including fuel, crew, payload and the aircraft itself. Glossary → | empty: 79,700 lb; MTOW: 137,500 lb |
| Power & Payload | |
| Engines | 4 x Wright R-3350-DA3 Duplex-Cyclone 18-cylinder radial engines, 3,250 hp each, with three-bladed constant-speed propellers |
| Crew | 5 flight crew, plus cabin crew |
| CapacityPayload — Everything an aircraft is carrying that isn't the aircraft or its fuel: passengers, cargo, or weapons. Payload and fuel usually trade off against each other. Glossary → | Typically 62 to 95 passengers, up to 109 in the high-density L-1049D layout, with a payload of 18,300 lb |
| Program & Service | |
| Manufacturer | Lockheed |
| Origin | United States |
| First Flight | January 9th 1943 |
| Service Entry | February 1946 |
| Retired | 1978 |
| Number Built | 856 |
| Unit Cost | Reported: about $10.2M in 2026 dollars, from a $425,000 price quoted for the L-049 (unconfirmed) |
7 notable events involving the Lockheed Constellation, 1946 to 1969, accounting for 322 deaths. Curated rather than exhaustive.
A TWA training flight crashed near Reading, Pennsylvania, killing five of the six crew. A six-week grounding followed, and more than 95 changes were made to the aircraft.
Pan Am's Clipper Eclipse suffered an engine failure and then a fire and crashed in the Syrian desert near Mayadin. Fifteen people died.
KLM's PH-TEN crashed about 5 km east of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Forty people were killed.
Air France's F-BAZN hit Redondo Mountain on São Miguel island in the Azores. Forty-eight people were killed.
TWA's N6004C crashed near Wadi Natrun in Egypt. Fifty-five people were killed, the highest toll in the L-049 and L-749 listing.
A TWA Super Constellation collided with a United Air Lines DC-7 over the Grand Canyon. The listing gives 70 killed on the TWA aircraft and 58 on the United aircraft.
A Navy EC-121M on patrol over the Sea of Japan was shot down by North Korean MiG-21s. All 31 aboard were killed, the only combat loss of a US Super Constellation.
| C-69 / L-049 | The original Constellation. Of 202 C-69s intended for the USAAF, 22 were built before the war ended, seven of them completed as civil L-049s, and the Army cancelled the rest in 1945. TWA took its first L-049 in late 1945, and Pan Am also ordered the type. A single C-69C (L-549) was a 43-seat VIP transport. |
| L-649 / L-749 | The L-649 was built for Eastern, which took all 14. The L-749 and L-749A carried more fuel in the outer wings, with 131 built including 12 military aircraft and one kept by Lockheed. On 17 June 1947 Pan Am opened the first scheduled round-the-world service with its L-749 Clipper America. |
| L-1049 Super Constellation | The longer-fuselage version, with the L-1049 (24 built), L-1049C (48), L-1049D (4), L-1049E (28), L-1049G (102) and L-1049H (59), which together come to 265 aircraft. Eastern, TWA, Air France, KLM, Qantas and Trans-Canada were major buyers, and the L-1049D could seat up to 109 in a quick-change interior. |
| L-1649A Starliner | The final civil version, with 44 built. A TWA L-1649A flew Los Angeles to London nonstop in 18 hours 32 minutes on 29 September 1957, about 5,420 miles at 292 mph, and another flew London to San Francisco in 23 hours 19 minutes on 1 and 2 October 1957. Jet airliners arrived very soon afterwards. |
| C-121 / R7V / WV-2 | Military transports and patrol aircraft. The C-121A carried 44 seated passengers or 20 litters, the R7V-1 carried 72 troops, and Lockheed built 50 R7V-1s, 33 C-121Cs and 142 WV-2 radar aircraft for the US Navy. These were the military counterparts of the L-1049 and flew into the late 1960s. |
| EC-121 Warning Star | The airborne early warning and radar picket version, built as RC-121C (10) and RC-121D (48) and remaining in US Navy and Air Force service until 1978. Callsigns changed from Big Eye to College Eye, and EC-121Ts were called Disco. On 15 April 1969 a Navy EC-121M was shot down over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 aboard. |
| VC-121 Columbine | Presidential and staff transports. A VC-121A named Columbine served Eisenhower as supreme commander in Europe from late 1950 to mid-1952, a VC-121A named Columbine II was his aircraft as president from 1953, and the VC-121E Columbine III entered service in 1954 before retiring to the Air Force museum in 1966. |
No photos added yet for this aircraft.
Source: FlightGlobal - David Kaminski-Morrow
Source: Vintage Aviation News - Kapil Kajal
Numbered as cited in the Overview article. Click a reference to see where it's used.
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