Blinky the Shark wrote:
> Gregory Morrow wrote:
>
> >
> > Blinky the Shark wrote:
> >
> >> Dimitri wrote:
> >>
> >> > As you might have imagined over my, well many years, I have flown
quite
> > a
> >> > bit. I started flying at the ripe age of 7 about 1950 in the TWA
> >> > Constellation.
> >>
> >> The Lockheed Consetllation remains the most beautiful airliner ever.
> >>
> >
> >
> > Yep, it was...I have a model of one sitting right on my desk here, it's
in a
> > beautiful Qantas livery. It just has a perfect "line" to it, looks good
> > from any angle...
> >
> > [I collect model airliners, amongst my other fascinating hobbies ;-) ]
> >
> > IIRC the Connie still holds the record for longest non - stop scheduled
> > flight ever. TWA flew an advanced version fitted with extra fuel tanks
on
> > their trans - polar LAX - LHR (London Heathrow) route, it was slightly
over
> > *24* hours in the air...all first class layout, natch, with sleeper
seats.
>
> Wow!
Hard to imagine...24 hours with those NOISY prop engines...
[cue up the Dimitri Tiomkin score to _The High And The Mighty_...]
In the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in DC (the one on The Mall), there is
a fuselage from an old Eastern DC - 7, you can walk through the passenger
cabin. Pretty small, I got claustrophobia just being in there, can't
imagine being in that tight of a fuselage for *24* hours.
> <snip>
>
> > [OTOH think what a great thing the first jets were for a place like
> > Australia, it put them a whole day or so closer to the world...]
>
> True.
>
> Valley Trivia: We have a flying Constellation based at Van Nuys, the burb
> just to the west of me here.
Is that the last one in the US still flying? I think a group bought it and
restored it. IIRC there is a similar Connie restoration project in
Australia...
Here's my new fave site at which to waste time, scans of airline timetables
from all over, and a number of complete timetables:
http://www.timetableimages.com/index.htm
Here's the Qantas page:
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/qf.htm
There's a complete 1953 timetable, even with a Connie it took a few days to
reach Europe on the "Kangaroo Route", they had to overnight the passengers
at some stops. It's makes me tired just to read it...!!!
--
Best
Greg