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Vintage aviation fans?

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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The film is "Flying with Arthur Godfrey", 1953. Godfrey, Eddie Rickenbacker, Dick Merrill, et al. And a beautiful Super Constellation <drool>.

I've got the original on DVD, but here are some internet links:

Part 1: https://www.archive.org/details/Flyingwi1953

Part 2: https://www.archive.org/details/Flyingwi1953_2

Altho' the film is more a "promo" for Eastern Airlines and commercial flying in general, Arthur Godfrey flies left seat with Dick Merrill on flight 601 from Idyllwild to Miami in a Super Connie.

Couple of fun spots for me:

- the preflight and checklists for a Super Constellation

- Godfrey explains VOR while showing us the panel.

- goes up to cruising altitude (22,000') and says "time for a Chesterfield" - then lights up. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/shocked.gif

- feathers three of the four engines, and the plane stays at 22,000

- Eddie Rickenbacker predicts that the commercial fleet will become all jets

- Godfrey lands his own Navion at "Leesburg International Cow Pasture"

My interest in obsolete technology continues!

Tom
 
nutmeg, that was soo cool! my uncle worked for t.w.a. and would bring me to his job and let me sit in the cockpit of those planes, when he retired they gave him a beautiful model of one, there is one in Rochester n.y. that's been turned into a restaurant.
 
looks like it'll take forever to download. Maybe I'll find the DVD.

One reviewer recounts a story I heard but never verified; that Godfrey had his ticket suspended for buzzing the tower!
 
Thanks, Tom - great stuff!

Arthur Godfrey: "Howayah, howayah, howayah?" Haven't thought of that opening of his TV show in quite a while...
 
Godfrey and Bob Cummings used to fly into the "Flying W Ranch" up in Medford, New Jersey back in the 60s where I was a commercial flight instructor at the time and have lunch there. Even though I saw him a couple of times, I never met Godfrey but I did meet Bob Cummings. Shot the breeze with him a couple times over a cup of coffee. Very nice fellow. He didn't like talking about work much. Some people thought he was a snob, but that was not true. He just liked his privacy. Don't we all?
 
Arthur Godfrey is the only reason Leesburg VA has an airport. I remember walking around the airport when I was a kid. It was small town stuff back then. Old buildings, some probably original to when they moved the airport to the current location. Signs still said, and we all called it "Godfrey Field"...but no longer. There's no reference to him, and I'd wager most of the people that use the airport would give you a blank stare if you said "welcome to Godfrey field".
 
And we will be taking helicopters to the airport from downtown.

Wonderful old propaganda film.

And that "old" technology used in the 3350. It's still a valid way of taking energy from high velocity exhaust gas and putting it directly onto the crankshaft. We are even discussing it right now for the very large, low speed diesel ship engines.
 
Great stuff! I watched the first half...I'll check ou the second half later.

I came to North America with my Mom, in a Constellation in the mid-50s. (my Dad came by cargo ship a few months earlier).

I had also heard the story of Godfrey buzzing the tower and getting his ticket pulled for a while.

The Connie below is parked at Greenwood Lake airport here in New Jersey, not far from me.
It's used as sort of an attraction and flight-school building and hasn't moved in many years.
They cranked up one of the engines about 10 years ago and it sounded pretty good.

image005.jpg
 
Well, SOME folks take a helicopter from the downtown terminal ...

Speaking of the 3350, it didn't have the best reputation. Ask any B-29 driver.

https://www.aviation-history.com/lockheed/1049.html

One of those engines self-destructed over the Atlantic in a Connie flight while Dick Merrill was in left seat. Altho' Merrill gave most of the credit to the crew, many folks said he saved the entire plane and many lives when the prop flew through the cockpit, cutting all the electrical lines and killing the purser immediately. Merrill flew to the nearest large airport on three engines. Remember - no electrical systems. Muscles and hydraulics only.

T.
 
racingenglishcars said:
And we will be taking helicopters to the airport from downtown.
Click to expand...

Yup... they have helicopter service from the NYC airports to the Wall St or Midtown Manhattan heliports and back again. I think the cheapest deals they have are around $100 each way.
 
Which isn't far off what car service will cost these days, and you don't sit in traffic waiting to get through a tunnel...
 
aerog said:
Arthur Godfrey is the only reason Leesburg VA has an airport. I remember walking around the airport when I was a kid. It was small town stuff back then. Old buildings, some probably original to when they moved the airport to the current location.
Click to expand...

A student of mine kept his Cardinal in one of those old buildings. He gave flight instruction there in an old straight-tail 172. The roof collapsed on the Cardinal AFTER he had gotten it painted!
 
There are two parked not far from here and the owner has a third that's flyable. He recently sold them to Lufthansa who plan to restore one on site. I looked on Mapquest to see if they were visible and here's the image. Also, there a related story here.

MR08.jpg
 
Speaking of Super Constellations, A few years ago a museum in Ohio bought one in airworthy condition for a token fee in Texas. They had to let it set there for quite while they raised enough money to fuel it up for the flight to Ohio. The fellow at the museum said it cost them $10,000.00 for gas to get it there. And that was about 15 years ago! Naturally it doesn't leave the ground any more.
 
I ran across this Connie photo today whilst looking for another photo. It's a plain Constellation, not a Super, that was restored in MATS colors. This was at Frederick, Maryland when the CAF used to have the Wings of Freedom show there. Don't know if it's still on the airshow circuit.

One of the most graceful airplanes ever built, the Constellation was the zenith of recip-engine airliner development. Those triple tails were elegant.
 

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Speaking of R-3350 engines, the CAF brought the B-29 "Fifi" to the Cleveland air show a few years ago. I wanted so badly to see it fly, and it got grounded by rain the day I went. Went the next day, but because I got stuck in traffic, I had to watch it from several blocks from the airport. I was standing near a fire truck with its engine running, and when Fifi flew by, the sound of those 4 radials just drowned out the fire truck's diesel. Now that's an impressive sound.

I can't imagine how the CAF keeps a machine like that going; we have a hard enough time keeping our LBCs on the road, but they were built after the B-29 and far less complex. It's also less of an issue for us when we have trouble since we can usually pull off on the side of the road instead of having to stay airborne. I hope they will be able to raise the money to replace Fifi's engines. Last I heard, they were worn out and needed a sizable chunk of change to replace them.
 
That 3350 sure had a checkered reputation. By the way, here's one of my favorite views of one of the "earlier" (non-Super) Constellations. One beautiful aircraft.

Note to John: you're lucky to have that Connie in your neighborhood. Oh, and one more thing; I'd suggest you use the stove to roast your walnuts ... not your exhaust. Saving money is commendable, but really ...

T.
 
NutmegCT said:
Note to John: you're lucky to have that Connie in your neighborhood. Oh, and one more thing; I'd suggest you use the stove to roast your walnuts ... not your exhaust. Saving money is commendable, but really ...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, Tom. Your help is indispensable.

The Connie isn't based here. though. It was here for Wings of Freedom.
 
I won't go into detail, but there's an old story why younger pilots were preferred to fly the Constellations over the older pilots. Has to do with the design of the tail section of the aircraft. Some of you old guys probably know the story.
evilgrin0013.gif
 
I must be too young!

Can you send it to me in a personal message?
 
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