Connie v. Comet

Some pessimists fear that Britain's swift but short-ranged jet Comets will capture air-transport supremacy from U.S. planes. Last week, Lockheed Aircraft Corp. tried to cheer up the mourners. It showed off the first model of its "turbo-compounded" Super Constellation, a piston-type plane which will not only carry about three times as many passengers (99) as the Comet I, but cover long hauls in less elapsed time. It is the first transport, said Lockheed, which will be able to guarantee nonstop flights from New York to Europe on a regular-fare, scheduled basis.*

The Super Connie gets its extra speed and range from four of Curtiss-Wright's new 3,250 h.p. turbo-compounded engines, which use the previously wasted exhaust blast to whirl three small turbine wheels, giving 20% more power to the propeller shaft. With them, the Super Connie reaches a cruising speed of 340 m.p.h., or 13 miles faster than the non-compounded Super Connies already being flown by Eastern Airlines and T.W.A. The U.S. Navy will get the first model late this month. In March, Lockheed will deliver the first commercial model to Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM), one of eleven international airlines which have ordered it. Eastern will get the first U.S. deliveries in late 1953.

The interior of the new plane has been designed by Henry Dreyfuss for greater comfort and beauty. To eliminate the "streetcar" look, he broke the interior up into three cabins, with paneled walls giving a living-room effect, put in a midplane lounge with fabric-covered sofas, and chairs with disappearing arms and built-in headrests. The plane's large, rectangular windows give 85% more visibility than most planes. The three cabins, if desired, can be used for three separate types of service, luxury, tourist and coach.

While not so fast as the Comet, which cruises at 480 m.p.h., the Super Connie, with a much longer range, will be able to fly from London to Johannesburg with one stop in 20 hours, a trip which now takes the Comet about 24 hours, with five refueling stops. Furthermore, the Super Connie itself will shortly take an intermediate step toward jet propulsion in a "turboprop" (i.e., jet-driven propellers) version as soon as turboprop engines are available for commercial use. (Lockheed is already building two Super Connies with Pratt & Whitney T-34 turboprops for the Navy.) These engines will give the Super Connie a cruising speed (415 m.p.h.) close to that of the Comet.

With the Super Connie, Lockheed expects U.S. planes to be able to keep their ocean dominance until 1956, the earliest time when Britain expects to have jet transports with a range long enough for the Atlantic, even with stops. By then, the U.S. expects to be building big jet transports of its own.

*T.W.A. and Pan Am now schedule nonstop flights to Europe, but planes frequently have to make refueling stops.

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