Aviation History – A Boeing Stratocruiser Draws a Crowd
A Boeing 377 Stratocruiser crosses a taxiway bridge over the eastbound Route 678 Van Wyck Expressway at what would become JFK Airport to the delight of several onlooking motorists. Having entered airline service in 1949 and derived from the B-29 Superfortress bomber, the Stratocruiser represented a significant evolution in air travel, featuring a pressurized double-decker cabin. The pressurization made flights more comfortable for passengers and enabled the aircraft to cruise at higher altitudes, avoiding bad weather and taking advantage of strong tailwinds.
As seen in this 1951 photo, the Stratocruiser was such a departure from existing aircraft designs that it literally turned heads and stopped traffic.
Topics Related To: AVIATION HISTORY
Northrop HL-10 Lifting Body Aircraft
To help study the science of spacecraft reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, NASA flew and evaluated various lifting-body aircraft.
Air-to-Air Artistry: The Story Behind an Iconic Aviation Photo
In the 1970s, Paul Bowen broke the air-to-air photography formula to capture the Cessna Citation over the California coast. This is how he did it.
Rent-a-Plane: The Hertz Experiment That Vanished Into Thin Air
In the late 1950s, Hertz rented planes to anyone with a pilot’s license. Four years later, the program vanished. Here’s why.
