Lockheed R6V Constitution

The Lockheed R6V Constitution was a large, propeller-driven, double-decker transport aircraft developed in the 1940s by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as a long-range, high capacity [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. (The Constitutions were identified as R6O until 1950.) Only two of the aircraft were ever built, both prototypes. Although these two planes went into service with the Navy, the Constitution design ultimately proved underpowered and too large for practical airline use at the time. The Constitution remains the largest [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] type ever operated by the U.S. Navy.

Design and development
The Lockheed Constitution began life in 1942 as a joint study by the U.S. Navy, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and Lockheed. The design requirements, initially designated Lockheed Model 89, called for a large transport aircraft to improve upon the Navy's fleet of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. PanAm was involved in the study because such an aircraft had potential use as a commercial airliner. This transport would carry 17,500 pounds of cargo 5,000 miles (8,000 km) at a cruising altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 m) and a speed greater than 250 mph (400 km/h). The aircraft would be fully pressurized and large enough so that most major components could be accessed and possibly repaired in flight. For instance, tunnels led through the thick wings to all four engines.
The aircraft was designed by a team of engineers led by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and W.A. Pulver of Lockheed and Commander E. L. Simpson, Jr. of the Navy. The name Constitution was given to the project by Lockheed president [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].^{[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]}
The Constitution design had a "double bubble" fuselage, the cross section of which was a "figure eight". This unorthodox design utilized the structural advantages of a cylinder for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], without the wasted space that would result from a single large cylinder of the same volume.
The original contract from the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] called for 50 Constitutions for a total price tag of $111,250,000. On [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], however, the contract was scaled back to $27,000,000 for only two aircraft

Operational history
Ship No. 1
The first Constitution, BuNo 85163, was built in the summer of 1946 at the Lockheed plant in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. Because of the aircraft's large size—the tail towered 50 feet (15 m)—Lockheed had to build a special hangar for final assembly. The $1,250,000 hangar, Lockheed-California's Building 309, measured 408 feet (124 m) long, 302 feet (92 m) wide, and the equivalent of six stories tall. The footprint of the hangar covered 4 acres (16,000 m²).
The R6O made its first flight on 9 November 1946, powered by interim 3,000 hp R-4360-18 radials. Joe Towle and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (Rudy Thornen, flight engineer and Jack Frick, Dick Stanton, assistant flight engineers made up the rest of the flight crew) flew the plane on a leisurely course to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. Once there, the aircraft underwent a carefully documented test program. At this time, electronic data recording technology was not well developed, so instrument readings were recorded by a movie camera pointed at the instrument panel. Additional movie cameras were carried to record test results.
The first Constitution made a nonstop flight from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 25 July 1948, (2,460 mi.). The pilot for the flight was Commander William Collins (USN) and the copilot was Roy Wimmer, Lockheed engineering test pilot. Four days later, the ship was formally christened by Mrs. [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], wife of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].
The first test flights revealed that the aircraft was underpowered and a substitution of 3,500 hp (with water injection) R-4360-22-W powerplants was made. The R6O also tested [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] takeoffs with six rockets mounted on the rear of the fuselage. At full gross weight, the rockets shortened the takeoff run by 24%.
Ship No. 1 was delivered to Navy Transport Squadron VR-44, based at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], on 2 February 1949. Both it and its sister ship, Ship No. 2 (which followed six months later), flew the route between California and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], (approximately 2,460 mi).

Ship No. 2
The second Constitution, BuNo 85164, first flew on 9 June 1948. This aircraft, like its predecessor, had a double-deck configuration. The second aircraft, however, had an upper deck fully furnished as a luxury passenger transport, with accommodations for 92 passengers and 12 crew. (Accommodations on the upper deck of the first Constitution were decidedly more spartan.) The upholstery on the upper deck was light gray with Navy blue trim. On the back of the forward bulkhead, in front of the spiral staircase leading to the lower deck, a permanent display case was occupied by a scale model of the original [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] sailing ship.
The lower deck had 7,373 cubic feet (208.8 m³) of cargo space, and it was loaded by an electrical hoist. The lower deck could also be converted to seat an additional 76 passengers.
The second Constitution, like its predecessor, also made a nonstop transcontinental flight. On 3 February 1949, the aircraft flew its 16 crew and 74 members of the press from Moffett Field to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. At the time, this was the largest number of people flown across the United States in a single flight. This flight inaugurated six months of regular service between Washington, D.C. and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].
In the early 1950s, Ship No. 2 made a Navy recruiting tour of 19 cities. The side of the fuselage proudly advertised "YOUR NAVY—AIR AND SEA." Some 546,000 toured the aircraft's interior.

Disposition
The Constitution had operational difficulties which prevented it from meeting its original design objectives. The four [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] did not offer the power needed by such a large aircraft. The engine also had cooling problems, which was corrected by flying with engine cooling gills partially open. This added drag decreased the overall range.
The Navy operated the two Constitution prototypes through the end of the 1940s and into the 1950s. By 1949, however, the Navy announced that it could no longer afford to operate these aircraft, and offered them to airlines on a five-year lease. No airlines expressed interest in using the Constitutions (the airline version was named the Model 189), so the Navy retired both aircraft in 1953. They went into storage at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 1955. Both aircraft and 13 spare engines were sold for $97,785. Lockheed proposed the Model 389 and Model 489 airliners based on the Constitution, which would have accommodated up to 169 passengers. Neither of these "paper" projects received much interest from civil operators.
The first Constitution was brought to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], where it served as an enormous billboard for Alamo Airways, before getting scrapped by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] when he acquired the property. The second Constitution was flown to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Florida, where it was stored on the airfield before being towed to a scrap yard and became the object of interest of vandals who torched the aircraft, resulting in its final demise in 1979.

Specifications (R6V BuNo 85164)

General characteristics

• Crew: 12
  
• Capacity: 168 passengers
  
• Length: 156 ft 1 in (47.6 m)
  
• [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]: 189 ft 1 in (57.6 m)
  
• Height: 50 ft 4.5 in (15.4 m)
  
• Wing area: 3,610 ft² (335.4 m²)
  
• Empty weight: 113,780 lb (51,610 kg)
  
• Loaded weight: 160,000 lb (72,600 kg)
  
• [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]: 184,000 lb (83,460 kg)
  
• Powerplant: 4× [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], 3,000 hp (2,240 kW) each
  
  Performance
  
  
• [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]: 303 mph (490 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m)
  
• [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]: 260 mph (418 km/h)
  
• Range: 5,390 mi (8,670 km)
  
• Service ceiling: 28,600 ft (8,700 m)
  
• [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]: 700 ft/min (210 m/min)
  
  

"This aircraft flew into Opa locka Airport (OPF) in 1963, supposedly on a ferry flight to Africa... (I may be wrong about Africa being the ultimate destination... for some reason Portugal comes to mind after nearly 40 years, but it was going trans-Atlantic anyway)... where it was to be turned into a restaurant similar to the other Constitution which was located in Nevada. (Lockheed only built two of them.)

The night before it was to take-off on the continuation of the ferry flight, while it was chock full of fuel, it caught fire on the Hangar One FBO ramp. The interior was gutted by flame, yet the exterior was relatively untouched... (your photo is a post-fire photo.)

There was a lot of intrique surrounding this airplane, including rumors that the copilot was eventually murdered and that the fire was set for insurance purposes, but I can't locate old newspaper articles at this stage. The county eventually took over the aircraft due to non-payment of tie-down fees and it was moved to a couple of different places on OPF before finally being moved over to the Sun Line Flying FBO property.

I was a young lineboy at Sun Line in the 1966-67 period (making minimum wage of $1.25 per hour,) I was the only one on duty working the airside ramp when the county literally showed up unannounced towing the Constitution to our ramp. I made a phone call to the "boss" to confirm that we were supposed to get the beast, then I was told put it where "I" thought it would create the fewest problems.

When the county backed it onto the grassy portion of our property, it's fate was sealed because the weight of the plane caused the main gear tires to sink into the soft Florida sand. In fact, the county had a hell of a time pushing it back onto the grass far enough to have the aircraft's nose clear the concrete taxiway. The Constitution sat in the same spot for years without being moved.

I used to climb up into the fuselage and cockit which smelled of musty burned out fabric and electrical wire, just to explore its innards. You gained access by climbing up on the nose gear tires and opening a full-sized door in the rear bulkhead of the nose gear wheel well. This was one huge aircraft! It was a double decker and the fire had caused the upper floor to collapse about midway between the cockpit and the wing. There was also a small door in the fuselage interior near the wing root section that you could open and crawl out in the wing to the engine firewalls to undertake maintenance in flight if you were the unlucky mechanic chosen to do so.

I never took anything out of the aircraft except some smoke damaged literature that was apparently to be handed out to passengers. I vaguely remember that it was from Lockheed, not the US Navy, but I could be wrong on that one.

By the time the Constitution was towed to Sun Line, someone had already taken a hacksaw and cut off the control yokes and removed most of the cockpit instrumentation. Eventually, the aircraft was taken apart, moved to a spot on NW 135th Street near the airport and reassembled on that site. (That was probably in the mid-to-late 70's.) Finally, the aircraft was scrapped (I don't remember the year). It was beyond any repair or reconstruction, even for a commercial venture like a restaurant."