Super Connie

[shootnstarz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKz7N-iGIFQ

These old prop airliners are some of my favorite aircraft, from a time when air travel was a novelty and you dressed up to fly anywhere. Service was excellent, full course meals, female flight attendants and most pilots were highly skilled WWII bomber drivers.

This R/C model looks and sounds great, from a time when airplanes were airplanes.

Rick

 

[Seanpcola]

I got to paint the one sitting outside the Naval Aviation Museum. The more you look at it from different angles the more you appreciate the graceful lines.

 

[Viking1204]

I remember a time too when stewardesses weren't so fat that they knock into my shoulders every time they walk by when I'm sitting in an aisle seat. I can't help the fact I'm 6'4" tall with wide shoulders but they sure can control what they eat!

 

[JGH]

The Connie was also used for photo recon when I was in Southeast Asia.

 

[Seanpcola]

And hurricane tracking too.

 

[Snow Bird]

I got to see one at an air show once and they are something to behold. It was one of the few still flying. Heck it might have been the last one flying. You know how the memory gets when you ge old.

Sean are those radial engines on the RC. Sounded like it.

 

[JohnAL]

Don't forget the pregnant connie
http://www.radomes.org/museum/aews.php

 

[Ross7]

RC-121D, my father flew in those in the late '50s in the 551st Wing.

 

[Seanpcola]

I got to see one at an air show once and they are something to behold. It was one of the few still flying. Heck it might have been the last one flying. You know how the memory gets when you ge old.

Sean are those radial engines on the RC. Sounded like it.

Bird, don't know. Rick probably does and I'm sure he'll chime in but I would guess probably they are. Scale radial engines are available ($$$$$) and at that level of modeling those guys usually dont scrimp on ANYTHING.

 

[Seanpcola]

Don't forget the pregnant connie
http://www.radomes.org/museum/aews.php

John, the one I painted had that same radome on top. It got blown off in Ivan and the museum found a replacement.

 

[Sporter]

I was stationed at Homestead AFB when the USAF retired the Connie based AWACS EC-121s in the late 70's. Graceful planes from another era.

 

[JohnAL]

There were still some flying when I was in too.
I'm from another era, just not graceful.

 

[Famine]

I was flying back from Germany in '67. Frankfurt to NY on a 707 and NY to DC on a Connie. Flight over water was a snooze....it was late June and nothing but T'storms between NY and DC....up and down drafts made for an 'Interesting' flight. Was very happy to land and never got to appreciate the plane. :fear:

 

[Garpo]

Back in my Army days, I had the opportunity to fly in one from Korea to Japan. What a sexy bird she is!

 

[shootnstarz]

The WC-121, or Hurricane Hunter, is how I remember Connies. I remember seeing one fly over my house the day after Hurricane Betsy, 1965 after I had just built a model of one by candlelight the night before.

I don't know what engines the model has but it sounds like they are single cylinder 4 stroke nitro engines, radials are much smoother sounding. I've seen a few and they're at their best when idling along, sound very realistic.

Rick

 

[Snow Bird]

Shootnstarz Thanks about the engines I love the sound of those radials idling sound s SOOOO good. Someone said they sound like a hundred Harleys

 

[shootnstarz]

Shootnstarz Thanks about the engines I love the sound of those radials idling sound s SOOOO good. Someone said they sound like a hundred Harleys

I have a cd called "Round Sounds" that is a bunch of different radial engines on different planes, including a flight on a Connie. They're all cool but to hear the track with a couple of Sea Furys, obviously with hopped up engines, start up and take off will send chills up and down your spine.

Nothing beats the sound of those old radial engines, except maybe a Packard Merlin V-1650 strapped to the front of a P-51.

Rick

 

[Snow Bird]

I watch some vids in Utube with the volume turned up, Almost like being there except you cant smell the smoke.


Edit, I was on some kind of prop job when I took a short hop to get married in 1966. Don't have any idea what it was but the best part of the flight was engine start up when it was 25 degrees out side. Well the safe landing in a snow storm was right up there to.

 

[Seanpcola]

My wife and daughter both have videos they made at work with their camera phones of start up and taxi of FiFi (B-29) and Liberty Belle (B-17) when they were there. Both show it with the volume up and say "Seexxxxxyyy".:evil:

What was cool.was the very first startup of the P&W 985 in the Stearman at work after engine installation. Brand new crate motor. Flushed out the preservatives,.filled her up with castor oil and spun it. About 10 blades through one cylinder explodes to life, then two, the five, then finally all 9. "Whiiiiiiine, bang...............bang bang.......... bang bang bang bang bang.........ROAR!!!!!!!!". The whole airport was covered in a fog of castor oil smoke and fumes. Made me extremely proud to be an American. The thing was idling and my buddy said "The only thing missing is a huge nut sack hanging down between the landing gear". :rockon:

 

[Snow Bird]

Someone Photo Shop that Stearman for us!!!!!