Lockheed Constellation: A History

by Graham M Simons

This illustrated history “recounts the unusual and sometimes dramatic development and operational career of one of the twentieth century’s most iconic airliners” (Aviation History Magazine).   Clarence “Kelly” Johnson’s design for the Lockheed Constellation, known affectionately as the Connie, produced one of the world’s most iconic airliners. Lockheed had been working on the L-044 Excalibur, a four-engine, pressurized airliner, since 1937. In 1939, Trans World Airlines, at the instigation of major stockholder Howard Hughes, requested a forty-passenger transcontinental aircraft with a range of 3,500 miles, well beyond the capabilities of the Excalibur design. TWA’s requirements led to the L-049 Constellation, designed by Lockheed engineers including Kelly Johnson and Hall Hibbard.   Between 1943 and 1958, Lockheed built 856 Constellations in numerous models at its Burbank, California, factory—all with the same distinctive and immediately recognizable triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped fuselage. The Constellation was used as a civil airliner and as a military and civilian air transport, seeing service in the Berlin and the Biafran airlifts. Three of them served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower. After World War II, TWA’s transatlantic service began on February 6, 1946 with a New York-Paris flight in a Constellation. Then, on June 17, 1947, Pan Am opened the first-ever scheduled round-the-world service with their L-749 Clipper America.   With revealing insight into the Lockheed Constellation, the renowned aviation historian Graham M. Simons examines its design, development, and service, both military and civil. In doing so, he reveals the story of a design which, as the first pressurized airliner in widespread use, helped to usher in affordable and comfortable air travel around the world.   “Simons makes good use of black-and-white and color photographs of Constellations in various airline markings and includes colorful airline brochures and marketing posters featuring the aircraft.” —Air Power History

Genres: Aviation

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 8, 2022

Reviews

[Daniel]

Interesting read about an important airplane from a manufacturer known for its design excellence of civilian airplanes starting with the Vega and including the Lockheed model 10,12, the Lodestar, the Constellation, the Electra and ending with the Tristar. Good detailed coverage of the operational history of the Connie including civilian and military activities, its peculiar role during the Vietnam war, the Biafra civil war...as this airplane in its different evolutions spanned 20 years of design work. The plane was used in diverse civil and military applications, from passenger to cargo configurations, as a radar platform, for intelligence collection in various settings and as a research vehicule for new technologies. The Constellation was a unique design from a manufacturer known for its original solutions and ability to come up with technological breakthroughs. Commercial successes did not always follow but Lockheed's influence on the evolution of airplane design is unsurpassed and in the case of the Constellation it truly was best of breed for its time.