1949 - inside a Pan Am Stratocruiser

 

The great 114-passenger double-deckers will cut solid hours from existing schedules. New timetables will read: "New York to London, 11 1/2 hours instead of 14 1/2 hours," and "San Francisco to Honolulu, 8½ hours instead of 12 hours." 

Twenty years ago a popular airliner was the tri-motored all-metal Ford., whose three engines produced a total of 660 horsepower. Any one of the Stratocruiser's four engines develops more than five times as much. 

The Ford carried 12 passengers in a compartment that measured 350 cubic feet. The same number of passengers can sit, with room to spare, in the big Boeing's cocktail lounge alone. The baggage and express compartments of the new plane are twice the volume of the Ford's passenger compartment. 

The Ford cruised at 95 miles per hour, two miles an hour slower than the Stratocruiser's landing speed. 

The Ford's fuel tanks held 235 gallons of gasoline. The Stratocruiser carries 32 times as much fuel and its drinking-water tanks alone are equal to one third the total fuel capacity of the Ford. The Stratocruiser can fly 4200 miles nonstop, a distance that would require seven intermediate landings for fuel by the earlier airliner.

A passenger on the Ford was deafened by noise, subjected to cold drafts and made uncomfortable by changes in altitude. Stratocruiser passengers never need to raise their voices and they breathe a manufactured atmosphere adjusted to a pleasant summer temperature and humidity. The cabin retains sea-level pressure up to 15,000 feet and is reduced to an apparent altitude of 6000 feet at the 25,000-foot ceiling. 

Briefly, the Stratocruiser has a span of 141 feet, is 110 feet long and has a tail that stands 38 feet high. Four Pratt & Whitney Wasp Majors, each with 28 cylinders, individually develop 3500 horsepower for take-off. The loaded plane has a take-off weight of 71 tons and cruises at 340 miles per hour at air levels of up to 25,000 feet. One reached a speed of 498 miles an hour in a dive. 

As a day plane. the big carrier seats up to 114 passengers; as a combination day-and-sleeper plane it  carries 25 chair passengers and 27 "Pullman" passengers on the upper deck plus 14 chair passengers in the lower-deck lounge. A spiral stairway  connects the two decks. A stewardess can change a berth-type seat into a bed in one minute. Upper berths fold out from the cabin walls.

Each seat has an armrest "control panel" that contains a call bell and a switch for prefocused reading light, ash tray, an "occupied" sign, seat number, reclining back adjustment and a receptacle into which may be fitted the dining-tray leg.

The plane has an extra-large galley with its own side hatch so the food and supplies may be laoded or unloaded from the galley without being hauled through the passenger compartment. Commodius dressing rooms for men and women are provided. The crew, which may number up to eight, has its own toilet facilities in the control compartment. 

Interior decoration was given considerable attention because a passenger's surroundings can contribute to travel sickness and fatigue or actually reduce them, depending on the colors and patterns used. Clashing colors and "busy" designs were ruled out. The basic color system employs dark colors at floor and seat level with light "high value" colors on the walls and ceiling. This treatment adds to the illusion of spaciousness and prevents eye fatigue when shifting the gaze from inside the plane to the outside. This is important because the Stratocruisers will normally fly above the clouds in constant sunshine during daytime hours.

Stratocruisers destined for different routes are given individualistic cabin color schemes. Planes for the bleak North Pacific run the Orient are being finished inside with rough-textured fabrics of beige and reddish-brown to help create a feeling of comfortable warmth. Aircraft on the Honolulu run will have tropical interiors featuring bamboo trim. Conservative oak Flexwood paneling goes into ships ordered by British Overseas Airways. All the control compartments are the same, finished in medium gray and dark maroon, with black nonreflective paint for instrument panels.

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images and info provided by the Popular Mechanics Archive | Zetu Harrys Collection