Lockheed L-049 Constellation

L-049 Constellation
A Trans World Airlines L-049 Constellation on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum.
Role	Transport/Airliner
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Lockheed
Designer	Clarence "Kelly" Johnson
First flight	January 9, 1943 (War production C-69) July 12, 1945 (Postwar production L-049)
Introduction	February 5, 1946
Retired	Late 1970s
Status	Retired
Primary users	Trans World Airlines Pan American World Airways American Overseas Airlines BOAC
Produced	1942–1946
Number built	88 (14 Military, 74 Civilian)
Developed from	L-044 Excalibur
Variants	C-69 Constellation
Developed into	Lockheed XB-30 (Unbuilt) L-649 Constellation L-1049 Super Constellation

The Lockheed L-049 Constellation was the first model of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. It entered service as the C-69 military transport aircraft during World War II for the United States Army Air Forces and was the first civilian version after the war. When production ended in 1946 it was replaced by the improved L-649 and L-749 Constellation.

In June 1939, Howard Hughes, the owner of Transcontinental & Western Air (later called Trans World Airlines and abbreviated TWA for short), prepared a meeting at his Hancock Park residence in California. Jack Frye (then president of TWA) attended along with three executives from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation which included designer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. During the meeting Hughes expressed his concerns for what he called the "airliner of the future". Lockheed's airliner under development at the time, the L-044 Excalibur, did not meet the requirements.

When the meeting ended with Hughes and Frye, the executives immediately started on improving the Excalibur to meet Hughes' expectations. One idea was to use the Wright R-2600 radials in place of the proposed Wright GR-1820 radials. It was decided instead to start from scratch using some original characteristics of the Excalibur. The design was lengthened from 74 ft 3 in to 95 ft 9 in and the wingspan was increased to 102 ft 4 in. Six different layouts of the cockpit envisaged, including a "Bug-Eye" proposal in which the pilot and co-pilot would sit in separate domes next to each other. In the end, it was decided to use a single curvature design with all-around glazing. Three weeks later, the new design was presented in a different meeting.

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