The first was the Pregnant Guppy, followed by the Super Guppy, and finally the Mini Guppy. The Super Guppy and the Mini Guppy had turboprop engines."
Posted on 07/15/2018 1:32:03 PM PDT by NRx
UAL travel film/advert for flying to Hawaii on their massive Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
Ping
Yeah, 377 and C-97 used many B-29 engine, airfare and control components.
That bird deserves the name “BUFF” far more than the B-52!
Thanks. The Constellation was still in service when I was a young kid, and I've always loved the design.
C-97 was a pregnant B-29. I took trips in them, and the KC-97. If you flew above them they looked like a B-29.
Yes, classy. People dressed for flights and acted in a more civilized manner. Today, they undress for flights, argue with each other, physically fight strangers and smell.
Two times approaching National the plane lost an engine with a loud bang...Both times the passengers looked out the window and sighed, then ordered more free booze and went back to reading a newspaper or whatever...
You used to get a 4 pack of cigarettes with your meal served on china (actually closer to ironstone for durability) with metal cutlery.
4 packs of cigs? That’s amazing.
I’d never heard of that aircraft before. Looks like the “flying guppy” freighter. I had no idea a second deck was used for a lounge in that era...resurrected in the 747 twenty years later.
A cockpit crew of four for 55 passengers. United started 377 Service to Honolulu in 1950and discontinued it in 1954.
Did they really pressurize the cabin to sea level? If true, that was a big waste. Those are enormous windows, too.
I wonder what a 1950 ticket cost on that United flight in 2018 dollars. UA only ran first class SFO to HNL. For,reference, in 1955 BOAC B377s had 50 First Class seats (fare $400 one way New York to London) or 81 Tourist seats (fare $290). That is $3,700 and $2,700 respectively in 2018 dollars ONE WAY!
Airline deregulation sure made it possible for the masses to travel.
The first was the Pregnant Guppy, followed by the Super Guppy, and finally the Mini Guppy. The Super Guppy and the Mini Guppy had turboprop engines."
Wiki says it was a commercial derivative of the B-29.
A pack with 4 cigarettes.
.
Here’s a thread on another site where it is discussed
Someone says 6 or 8 in the pack, but someone else matches my memory of 4. Maybe it varied by airline.
And I have mixed feelings about that as the 1%ers have squeezed what should have been a comfortable middle class existence down the scale.
wow hahaha that’s great.
The Strat & the Connie. Beautiful airplanes both.
I didn’t realize I was that much older than you.
I remember riding one of the last Delta DC-7s. They had lounge seating in the rear.
I'll agree about the Connie. But the Strat was an ugly Frankenplane.
I agree, it’s beautiful. A Howard Hughes design, which was perfected and brought to life by “Kelly” (Skunkworks) Johnson at Lockheed, and first flown by TWA, which Hughes controlled. I think the curvy lines are echoed just a little bit in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, all but the triple tail.
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