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By the mid 50s Douglas and Lockheed were in a two horse race for the domination of the long-haul airliner market (what with the Comet thoroughly discredited, Britannia interminably delayed and the 707 still on the drawing board). Initial thoughts of fitting turboprops to Super Connies as the US Navy had already done didn't happen due to the airlines connection to the piston engine. Therefore Lockheed flitted through the L-1149-1549 designations whilst having major disagreements with P&W about the engines which were underpowered, fuel thirsty and costly.
By 1954 Douglas was offering the DC-7C which would be capable of non-stop transatlantic operations in both directions. Lockheed needed to respond and decided on a more modest upgrade of the L-1049G Super Connie keeping the Piston engines.
The fuselage was basically that of the Super Connie with only a 3ft stretch but the plane had totally new wings giving a 150ft wingspan as opposed to the L-1049's 124ft. The wings also dropped the Connies rounded tips and increased fuel capacity significantly. In fact the Starliner could fly further and faster than the competing DC-7C but that didn't save the type unfortunately.
TWA ordered 24 aircraft in March 1955 (Howard Hughes also bought one) and the first entered service on 11th October 1956. However other orders were few and far between. With jets on the horizon the Starliner was just too late to make much of an impression despite flying New York-Paris 3 hours faster than the DC-7C. It was also more expensive than the Douglas product. Air France ordered 10 and Lufthansa ordered 4. 4 ordered by the Italian LAI eventually joined TWA and 2 ordered by Varig were swapped for L-1049s. Only 44 were built!
First up we have the Alaska Golden Nugget - a scheme this frame didn't probably wear for long at all. N7316C was originally delivered to TWA on 26th June 1957 and was converted to a freighter in November 1960. She was one of a pair bought by Alaska primarily for MATs contracts but from 1965 also used on Alaskan services. Both were sold to Prudhoe Bay Oil Distributing in 1968 and used to carry oil barrels until 1971. Since then she has passed through several owners but finally in 2007 she was purchased by Lufthansa Technik for $748,000 and is to be restored to flight status.
Alaska Airlines Lockheed L-1649 Starliner by rstretton, on Flickr
Alaska Airlines Lockheed L-1649 Starliner by rstretton, on Flickr
Alaska Airlines Lockheed L-1649 Starliner by rstretton, on Flickr
By 1954 Douglas was offering the DC-7C which would be capable of non-stop transatlantic operations in both directions. Lockheed needed to respond and decided on a more modest upgrade of the L-1049G Super Connie keeping the Piston engines.
The fuselage was basically that of the Super Connie with only a 3ft stretch but the plane had totally new wings giving a 150ft wingspan as opposed to the L-1049's 124ft. The wings also dropped the Connies rounded tips and increased fuel capacity significantly. In fact the Starliner could fly further and faster than the competing DC-7C but that didn't save the type unfortunately.
TWA ordered 24 aircraft in March 1955 (Howard Hughes also bought one) and the first entered service on 11th October 1956. However other orders were few and far between. With jets on the horizon the Starliner was just too late to make much of an impression despite flying New York-Paris 3 hours faster than the DC-7C. It was also more expensive than the Douglas product. Air France ordered 10 and Lufthansa ordered 4. 4 ordered by the Italian LAI eventually joined TWA and 2 ordered by Varig were swapped for L-1049s. Only 44 were built!
First up we have the Alaska Golden Nugget - a scheme this frame didn't probably wear for long at all. N7316C was originally delivered to TWA on 26th June 1957 and was converted to a freighter in November 1960. She was one of a pair bought by Alaska primarily for MATs contracts but from 1965 also used on Alaskan services. Both were sold to Prudhoe Bay Oil Distributing in 1968 and used to carry oil barrels until 1971. Since then she has passed through several owners but finally in 2007 she was purchased by Lufthansa Technik for $748,000 and is to be restored to flight status.
Alaska Airlines Lockheed L-1649 Starliner by rstretton, on FlickrAlaska Airlines Lockheed L-1649 Starliner by rstretton, on FlickrAlaska Airlines Lockheed L-1649 Starliner by rstretton, on Flickr
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