a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser cross a taxiway bridge at J.F.K Airport , 1951

[xspeedy]

Would have taken a pic then closed my eyes and enjoyed the sound of four radials....

Those radials were known to very unreliable IIRC.

 

[PimTac]

Yes they are. Looks like a Sunday to me.

Here’s a photo of me one of the following years, 1956 maybe ?

Thin, but not too well dressed. My folks didn’t believe in wasting hard earned money on foolishness like children’s clothes.

PS my dad and uncles built the garage apartment in the background in about 1950. It’s still standing and occupied.

Z

View attachment 143324

Is that a Chevrolet Fleetline?

 

[zray1]

Is that a Chevrolet Fleetline?

All I remember is that is was a Chevy sedan that was a well faded black.

One day the whole family was out for a drive when the car radio caught fire. I’m sure it was a tube unit. My dad was imbued with superhuman dad strength and ripped the burning radio out of the dash and threw it out the window. Dad became a superhero in my eyes at that moment.

The down side was that my parents would never again buy a car with a radio. Very unusual to order a car in the 1960’s with a radio-delete option. And very hard on a teenager (me) of driving age until the Lear Jet 8 track tape players came on the market.

Z

 

[PimTac]

Great story.

Here is a Fleetline. I believe Pontiac had a similar model. The rear window is a defining feature with that huge sloping rear. This is a 1948 which might have had some differences.

 

[Number_35]

In 1959, Dennis Mitchell flew to Hawaii in a PanAm Stratocruiser.

 

[Number_35]

Those radials were known to very unreliable IIRC.

I read that the B-29 had lots of engine failures in the early days. They would climb to altitude as soon as possible, straining the engines badly. They tripled the engine life by flying relatively low until they'd burned off a fair bit of fuel before climbing.

 

[BusyLittleShop]

Here’s a photo of me one of the following years, 1956 maybe ?

Cool...
Me and Twinky (our glutinous cat) summer 1959 at our walnut orchard in Clear Lake Ca...

 

[Lapham3]

A Northwest Airlines Stratocruiser was my first plane ride in 1953. They were too expensive for the airlines to operate and weren't used for long.

 

[Number_35]

I think this model is of the Stratocruiser's sister aircraft, the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter.

The photo was taken at the Museum of Flight in Seattle in 2007. Sorry about the poor quality; digital cameras (and phones) have come a long way sisnce then.

 

[Exhaustgases]

The Strat had four 28 cylinder engines, air cooled. Each engine had four rows of 7 cylinders, offset so that all could get some cooling air.

Yeah and some bad propellers that caused some crashes. Its a very good aircraft otherwise. One of Boeing's best, even had a speed record from east coast to west coast.