page_title: Lockheed Constellation
section_title: Obsolescence
hierarchical_section_title: Lockheed Constellation / Operational history / Obsolescence
caption_attribution_description: Português: Constellation L-049 ano 1946 em exposição no museu Asas de um Sonho, São Carlos - SP. Eu acho esse avião, mais o Jumbo 747, os mais bonitos aviões comerciais já fabricados. Vemos em placa próxima: "É considerado a majestade dos ares e o pioneiro dos grandes vôos transoceânicos sem escalas. Considerado um dos mais belos aviões comerciais do mundo. Revolucionou a aviação comercial brasileira pelos avanços tecnológicos da época. A Panair do Brasil foi o seu maior operador no Brasil e por isso decidimos homenageá-la com a sua pintura. O Constellation L-049 do acervo foi fabricado em 1946 e pertenceu primeiramente à KLM. Entre 1961 e 1965 passou por alguns operadores e naquele ano, as autoridades paraguaias o prenderam em Assunção com um carregamento ilegal. Nunca mais ele voou e a partir de 1978 o velho 'Connie', como era conhecido, deixou de receber qualquer cuidado de preservação, começando a deteriorar-se rapidamente. Em 1999, depois de 34 anos de abandono, a Eductam adquiriu o que dele restou e o trouxe para o Brasil em seis carretas, promovendo o seu restauro apenas para exposição estática, porque ele jamais poderá voar."
context_page_description: The Lockheed Constellation is a propeller-driven, four-engine airliner built by Lockheed Corporation between 1943 and 1958 at Burbank, California. Lockheed built 856 in numerous models—all with the same triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped fuselage. Most were powered by four 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones. 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. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its pressurized cabin enabled large numbers of commercial passengers to fly well above most bad weather for the first time, thus significantly improving the general safety and ease of air travel. Three of them served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower.
context_section_description: Jet airliners such as the de Havilland Comet, Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, Convair 880, and Sud Aviation Caravelle rendered the Constellation obsolete. The first routes lost to jets were the long overseas routes, but Constellations continued to fly domestic routes. The last scheduled passenger flight of a Constellation in the lower 48 states was made by a TWA L749 on May 11, 1967, from Philadelphia to Kansas City, Missouri; the last passenger flight in Alaska was by Western's N86525, Anchorage to Yakutat to Juneau on 26 November 1968.
  Constellations carried freight in later years, and were used on backup sections of Eastern Airlines' shuttle service between New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston until 1968. Prop airliners were used on overnight freight runs into the 1990s, as their low speed was not an impediment. An Eastern Air Lines Connie holds the record for a New York to Washington, D.C. flight from take off to touchdown in just over 30 minutes. The record was set prior to speed restrictions by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) below 10,000 feet (3,000 m).
  One of the reasons for the elegant appearance of the aircraft was the fuselage shape, a continuously variable profile with no two bulkheads the same shape. This construction was expensive and was replaced by mostly tube-shaped modern airliners. The tube is more resistant to pressurization changes and cheaper to build.
  After ending Constellation production Lockheed chose not to develop a first-generation jetliner, sticking to its military business and production of the turboprop Lockheed L-188 Electra. Lockheed did not build a large passenger aircraft again until its L-1011 Tristar debuted in 1972. While a technological marvel, the L-1011 was a commercial failure, and Lockheed left the commercial airliner business permanently in 1983.
caption: A Lockheed Constellation L-049 preserved at TAM Museum
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