Lockheed 1649 Starliner Constellation ----------------------------------------- Fully animated with new texture and additional detail from previous versions thanks to these two great programs: Abacus' Aircraft Factory 99 and Aircraft Animator by Konstantin Kukushkin. ---------------------------------------- This aircraft was produced by Dave McQueen, July, 1999. e-mail: smcqueen@home.com. Additional support was provided by Rich Boehringer with nacelle texture, and Tom Gibson with his critical eye and invaluable suggestions as to how make the model more presentable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- New in this L1649 Simulation. Ailerons, elevator, rudders, flaps, and landing gear are fully animated. The fuselage has been redrawn with a 12 sided cross-section. Engine nacelles have been completely reworked. The cockpit area has been redesigned as well. In the cockpit view if you look toward the rear of the aircraft a rough texture of the main cabin will be seen. This will be upgraded when I get better shots of that area. The wings and elevator have been re-textured to simulated panels and rivets; the TWA paint scheme has been done over from scratch with hopefully improved results. The flight dynamics were tweaked to include 8000 gallon fuel capacity, below the max limit for the Starliner but still enough to make the aircraft take a lot of runway before becoming airborne. A speed between 115 and 120 knots is necessary before rotating. I hope you enjoy flying the airplane as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Due to time constraints I CAN NOT advise on how to install this add-on aircraft or explain why you are having problems with it. For that I suggest you contact one of the many flight simulation forums available on the Internet. This simulation is FREEWARE. Don't pay money for it For use with Microsoft's Flight Simulator 98 program. You must have installed the MS Converter (fsconv98.exe) in order to use this airplane. You can download the converter if you need it from: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/deskapps/games/public/flightsim/fsconv98.exe Download it into a temp directory, run the EXE file, and follow the online instructions. It needs only to be installed one time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starliner Installation: Unzip the file you downloaded to your AIRCRAFT folder under Flight Simulator 98. Unzip the Gauges zip file to a temporary folder and copy the .gau files to the GAUGES folder under Flight Simulator 98. If you already have a constellation panel or another favorite panel on your system you can delete the Gauges.zip file and use a panel manager to associate your panel with the Starliner. This model comes with Tom Gibson's Constellation Panel version 6. The first panel for the constellation originally made by Juan Pablo and Pablo Benlliure. This panel features photo-realistic areas, including the throttle quadrant. This panel does was modified it so it works in 3D too. For detailed instructions as to how to go about installing a new panel go to Tom Gibson's Classic Airliner site at: http://members.aol.com/TGFltsim/index.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History --------- The 'Constellation' and 'Super Constellation' were among the last of the great prop-driven airliners just before the jet age began in civil avia- tion. In 1939 Lockheed began with the development of the L-49 as a large four-engined civil aircraft. When the USA entered WWII, the concept was changed to the military transporter C-69, which first flew in January 1943. After the war the design was converted back to its original role, and the first L049 Constellations were put into service with Pan American Airways in 1946. The characteristic long slender fuselage and the triple tailfin of the Constellation could soon be seen at all major airports of the world. The long range and the pressurized cabin made the Constella- tion superior to most of her rivals. In 1951 the improved version, the L-1049 Super Constellation, saw service with Eastern Airlines. The L-1049, which had a longer fuselage and more power, went through many different versions, the last of which were the L-1049G and the passenger/freight version L-1049H. More than 600 Super Constellations were built. The last of the Constellation series was the L-1649A Starliner in 1957. Only 43 Starliners entered service. It holds the speed record for a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Paris, France, 17 hours, 11 minutes. The Starliner still holds the record for the longest continuous piston-engine flight (not counting Voyager) of 23 hours, 20 minutes. They were operated by TWA, Lufthansa, Air France, Alaska, and a few minor carriers. Janes lists the max cruise speed for the DC-7C at 346 mph (at max AUW), but the 1649 only at 342 (only at max landing wt). Max speed was 406 mph for the '7C vs 377 mph for the Starliner. Rummel confirms this in his book "Howard Hughes and TWA", in which he says that Lockheed found less than 6 months from introduction that the Jetsream would be somewhere between 3-18 mph slower than the 7's. It was their economics that was their downfall. Rummel says: "Even when completely filled, the 1649A's could not cover their fully allocated expenses, although a few flights did contribute to overhead. ... While they were loss leaders for TWA, passengers considered the 1649A's the queen of the skies." Also, Pearcy in his Douglas Airliners book says: "Although the DC-7 series in general had higher seat-mile costs than the DC-6B, this was less marked in the DC-7C, and was more than compensated for by other features. The Lockheed Starliner, on the other hand, though having a greater range, was markedly less economic, and only Air France, Lufthansa, and TWA bought it." The range difference (according to Janes) is DC-7C -5,635 miles, L1649A - 7,200 miles. ************************************************************************** Now the legal stuff: ENJOY, AND FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS. I INTEND ON OFFERING MANY LIVERIES OF THIS AIRCRAFT. THIS AIRPLANE IS THE PROPERTY OF THE AUTHOR, AND CANNOT BE RE-SOLD OR PACKAGED WITH ANY PRODUCT FOR SALE, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHORS. THIS IS FREEWARE!! YOU MAY UPLOAD THIS PLANE TO ANY OTHER SERVER THAT HAS A FREE DISTRIBUTION POLICY. IF THIS PLANE IS UPLOADED TO RESTRICTED SERVERS (I.E. COMPUSERVE FSFORUM)(NOT THE AUTHOR'S INTENTION), IT MAY BE DOWNLOADED AND UPLOADED TO OTHER SERVERS. THIS NOTICE CONSTITUTES THE AUTHORS PERMISSION TO DO THIS. THIS ENTIRE TEXT FILE MUST BE INCLUDED IN ANY DISTRIBUTION. THE AUTHORS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LIABILITIES THAT YOU MIGHT INCUR AS A RESULT OF USING THESE PRODUCTS. YOU ASSUME THE RISK OF USE.