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Story JON PROCTOR Photos AUTHOR ’ S COLLECTION , UNLESS NOTED

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HOWARD HUGHES often gets credit for designing the graceful Lockheed Constellation . While he did propose specifications for the aircraft , it was the manufacturer ’ s Robert Gross , along with aerodynamicists Clarence ‘ Kelly ’ Johnson and Hal Hibbard , who actually brought the airplane from concept to final design .

Yet Hughes was the driving force behind this elegant-looking , tripletailed airliner . His dream of flying nonstop across America is said to have germinated on January 19 , 1937 , when the aviator broke his own previous transcontinental speed record , flying his H-1 Racer from Burbank to Newark in 7 hours , 28 minutes , 27 seconds .

Barely two years later , in July 1939 , the Model 49 Constellation was on the drawing board as a 44-passenger , six-crew transcontinental airliner . It was to be a replacement for the five Boeing 307 Stratoliners that entered TWA service in 1940 .

Seating 33 passengers and featuring Pullman-size sleeping berths , the Boeing 307 Stratoliner ( not to be confused with the later 377

Stratocruiser model ) was the first airliner equipped with a pressurized cabin . However , without sufficient range to cross the country in a single hop , the ‘ Strats ’ had to make intermediate stops .

Hughes wanted a 44-passenger pressurized airliner capable of making a transcontinental non-stop flight within eight hours , which meant an average speed of 312mph for the 2,500- mile California-to-New York segment . Assured that the Constellation could do the job , he ordered nine of the aircraft for TWA on July 10 , 1939 ,

32 AIRWAYS MAGAZINE APRIL 2024 www . airwaysmag . com