Re: 2 etg propellfly
Jeg sa ikke at de forsvant, men at de ikke fløy i US Navy etter 1953. Det må ha vært artig å få sett den, har du noen bilder fra Opa Locka? Mht C-124 nevnes det i første post at personellet satt i annen etasje, så det kan vel stemme.
Dette er hva Wikipedia sier om saken, i den grad man kan stole på det som kilde:
The Constitution had operational difficulties which prevented it from meeting its original design objectives. The large airframe needed more power than the four Pratt & Whitney R-4360s could deliver, and the engines had cooling problems. While this could be compensated for by flying with engine cowl flaps partially open, it increased drag and decreased range.
The Navy operated the two Constitutions through the end of the 1940s and into the 1950s. By 1949 the Navy announced that it could no longer afford to operate them, and offered them to airlines on a five-year lease. There was no interest from airlines 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 NAS Litchfield Park, Arizona 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.[6]
The first Constitution was brought to Las Vegas, where it served as an enormous billboard for Alamo Airways,[7] before being scrapped by Howard Hughes when he acquired the property.[6] The second Constitution was flown to Opa-Locka Airport, Florida, where it was damaged by an internal fire. It was stored on the airfield until the mid-1970s, then was towed to an empty lot several miles from the airport. There were plans to convert it to a restaurant and museum theme park. The project never materialized and the airplane was destroyed due to lack of funding and pressure from the city to have it removed.[8]
