Lockheed Constellation

Yep-

The Connie gets my vote.

RG

Not sure it's even a competition..Connie all the way.

I am a 747 fan.

r. in s. was on a Connie, 1958 from Germany to the US. The Atlantic looked real cold below.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
I am a 747 fan.

Me too...

The Concorde is pretty good too.

Yeah, the Concorde is close.

DC 3

Good choice too, the only one of the 3 I have flown

After over 5,000 hours in both seats:

Boeing 757!!!

Flew both seats in the 747 and the "3" as well, but the Connie gets my vote, hands down.

The Concorde is elegant and the 75 has that exotic beak on it, but the Connie is class personified.

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:
Yeah, the Concorde is close.

iin my opinion the concorde is the most beautiful aircrart in the sky... followed by the rockwell B 1 B bomber....

Never flew the Connie very much but did the Dc-6, DC-7 and the CV340/440 - and can't believe anyone is serious about comparing ANY piston-engined A/C to the jets!
And of course, you know where my heart lies - here is the moxt beautiful of all time. IMHO!

I also thin the Connie wins but the ole 6 was pretty nice looking too.

Not the prettiest but I can't think of cooler flying job than being a Clipper Captain flying the Pacific in a Boeing 314.

Everyone thinks those props are cool until you have to listen to the engines turning them.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Everyone thinks those props are cool until you have to listen to the engines turning them.

That's why I'm sitting here wearing two high-tech hearing aids...

Nothing in aviation, however, is as sweet to me as the sound of a twin or trople row radial at takeoff power. One of the neatest sounding radials is the P&W R-985, found on a bunch of Stearmans, Beech 18's, and Lockheed 10's. Also on the Original Beaver. The R-2800 is music, too.

The hissing and roaring of a jet engine will never replace that sound. That's just noise pollution.

Nowadays, it is the rare moment to hear radials growling overhead. Beats Beethoven all to hell.

Concorde was undoubtedly the most beautiful jet airliner ever built and had a touch of class that went back to the 1930's flying boat era. Even the "Speedbird Concorde " class sign had a certain something about it..

When we were on exercise on Sailsbury Plain and a getting a little bored, we would tune our radios into the Airband frequencies and listen in to the chatter as the planes came into Heathrow. Undoubtedly the highlight was catching a Speedbird Concorde callsign...hearing the clipped and always very proper English accent emminating from the fastest airliner in the world never failed to make me feel proud to be British......

jetdrvr, not sure about the radials, for me its got to be the sound of a Merlin powered Spitfire; one of the few planes that sounds as beautiful as it looks....

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:
Lockheed Constellation

Well, speaking of! My Brother In Law has been busy scanning my dad's old slides and came up with a few winners (though they're all good IMO).

Dad flew for TWA for 33 years starting in 1956. He flew the Connie in the early years and was one of only eight guys checked-out simultaneously as a Connie Co-Pilot and Flight Engineer (due to a Flight Engineers Strike).

He loved the Connie and those 23 Hour NY/Gander/London flights at 18,000'... primitive stuff by today's standards! De-icing by cranking a handle to inflate bladders on the leading edge and taking star-readings with a sextant out of the plexi-glass bubble in the cockpit...

Anyway here's a pic he snapped in the 1950's of the Connie from the cockpit of the Martin 404:



Here's a couple of a Super G he snapped on the ground in San Francisco in 1962/63... he'd already moved on to the 707 when these pics were taken. He retired a 747 Captain... pretty well saw the Golden Age of the Airlines...

Brad,

Thank you sir. The career like the one your dad had was the reason I got into the airline business. Those pictures give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside!

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
Brad,

Thank you sir. The career like the one your dad had was the reason I got into the airline business. Those pictures give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside!

SS, cool!

My dad has always maintained, "real airplanes have all sorts of chit sticking out of them all over the place."

He definitely liked the 707, 727, L1011 and 747, but none are in the same league as the Connie!

Just like an F16 isn't the same as a P51...

1. Concorde
2. Connie

Or...

1. Connie
2. Concorde

Two different eras, two totally different concepts. I think both of them are the winners.

Unmistakable too, wonder how little of each you need to show in order to identify them...

quote:

Two different eras, two totally different concepts. I think both of them are the winners.

I agree, the two are very beautiful in entirely different ways... the first time I ever saw a Concord I was struck by its beauty, but also by its very small size... that petite size really doesn't come through in photos of it... only in relation to other aircraft, in close proximity on the ground, is it really appreciated.

Brad:

Your Dad was like my long time friends Dad who flew for American up until his death, they both lived in the age when both sex and flying were safe at the same time.

Lucky bastards...

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Everyone thinks those props are cool until you have to listen to the engines turning them.

That's why I'm sitting here wearing two high-tech hearing aids...

Nothing in aviation, however, is as sweet to me as the sound of a twin or trople row radial at takeoff power. One of the neatest sounding radials is the P&W R-985, found on a bunch of Stearmans, Beech 18's, and Lockheed 10's. Also on the Original Beaver. The R-2800 is music, too.

The hissing and roaring of a jet engine will never replace that sound. That's just noise pollution.

Nowadays, it is the rare moment to hear radials growling overhead. Beats Beethoven all to hell.

When I was in college I had one of those deluxe living accommodations under the flight path of the airport. Three or 4 times I heard that radial sound and bolted for the door in time to see a F4F fly overhead.

quote:

see a F4F fly overhead.

Have three cessna 195's, a T28, and a Skyraider flying around my house once a week or so...my reaction is pretty much the same...

WAY BACK when I was a kid a TWA Connie lifted off of ABQ and smacked full force into Sandia Peak. They cleaned uo the easy to clan pieces and left the rest.
!0-15 years later they decide to put a tram from the bottom up to the top of the peak. Every trip upa nd down the tram car operator pointes out the engines and a few big parts left from the Connie in the TWA CRASH.

A few year later TWA hired a crew to recover those big parts so the talk of a TWA crash (no matter how long ago) was not a topic on the tram ride.

Connies went over the house every day along with a real odd mixture of civilian and military aircraft.

I still fly out the door here when I hear the wonderful sound of a radial in the sky.

Not a pilot, but it does take me back to childhood to hear a DC-3 or Beech.

TC,

That was a TWA Martin 404 that crashed into Sandia Peak.I've been up to the wreckage. If there was Connie that crashed on Sandia I am not aware of it.

http://aircraftwrecks.com/pages/twa404.htm

Was there not a KC-135 crashed in the same general area...??

I used to take the tram up and run the ridge in the summer but never heard anyon mention a crash sight. Did hear about a military crash there.

The KC 135 crashed well south of the Martin 404 crash site. The KC-135 hit the mountains about 10 miles east of the approach end of runway 08 at KABQ also known as Kirtland AFB.

Used to fly that Kai Tak approach in a 747. Must have been fun in a Concorde.

At one time, I had accululated enough BA miles to have ridden the Concorde frrm JFK to LHR and a 747 back first class, but I thought, "What the hell, I'll always have the time," so I never did it. That is one of my great regrets. Used to see it in LHR and CDG and JFK a lot. It was tiny, compared to the widebodies.

Went aboard the static displayed Concorde test bed at Duxford. That's the only time I was ever in one.

Met a Brit in the Airport Hilton bar at LAX who flew on them all the time. He was a BA employee, so he got a fifty dollar seat on one whenever he wished, so he started a courier service, hand carrying important doucments back and forth across the pond. Charged several hundred dollars for the trip, plus expenses. He had some interesting stories of celebs he had ridden with, like Liz Taylor and Kirk Douglas and others. Said Liz was a bit stuffy, but Douglas was a regular guy.

Sure wish I'd taken that ride.

I think the B727 was the classiest transport I have flown. I love watching her on approach with those big Kruger slats hanging out. I read that the engineer who designed her flight controls quit when Boeing asked him to change his spoiler mixer design. I never did get a grip on that electrical system, what a freakin headache.
Conversly, the Beech 99 with the belly pod was hideous looking.

The Boeing 733-290

Sadly they never built it past the mockup stage.

Though the -300 was only slightly less slick looking.

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