B-29's Big Sister

A great silvery plane rolled out of Boeing's plant at Renton, Wash, last week for its first secret test flight. Elliott Merrill, Boeing's crack test pilot, revved up the plane's four 2,200-h.p. motors till the earth trembled. Then the 130,000-lb. plane skimmed along the runway, lifted easily into the air. An hour later Pilot Merrill grinned: "She handles easier than the B-29."*

This week Boeing proudly let out the 130,000-lb. secret. The new ship is Boeing's postwar superairliner, the "Strato-cruiser," in a military transport version. Boeing says the Stratocruiser can fly 100 passengers, in the plushiest kind of comfort, from New York to London in eleven hours; from New York to Los Angeles in seven. Clairmont Leroy Egtvedt, Boeing's conservative board chairman, published the startling figures:

P:The plane will cruise at 340 m.p.h. (maximum speed: 400 miles) for 3,500 nonstop miles.

P: It will carry passengers at the fantastically low direct cost of 1-c- per mile; freight, in an all-cargo design, at 5-c- per ton-mile.

P: When all indirect costs (airline overhead) are added, plus profit, Boeing estimates the total cost at only 2 1/4-c- a passenger-mile, 11-c- a ton-mile, well under even the most optimistic postwar airline rates tentatively set for transatlantic travel (TIME, Nov. 6).

Based on B-29 design, the Stratocruiser's two-decked, double fuselage, looking in cross section like a cigar atop a stogie, is fatter and longer than that of the B29, although the wing spread is the same. As an all-cargo Army plane, it will haul 35,000 pounds, which can be easily trundled in & out a letdown ramp in the rear. In a pinch, it can carry 172 soldiers. For postwar flying, Boeing expects airlines to use the top deck for passengers, who can sleep in roomy berths (see cut), the bottom either for a cocktail lounge (see cut) or cargo.

*For new details of the 6-29 see ARMY & NAVY.

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