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The Constellation was the quintessential airliner of the immediate postwar era. First designed and built as a troop transport in the 1940s, small numbers of Constellations served with the US Forces during the war. Thereafter, the aircraft entered service with TWA in 1945. The Constellation gained a reputation as an efficient airliner combining speed and long range and whose pressurized fuselage provided comfort for the passengers.

The Constellation and Biggles[]

Biggles would have encountered the Constellation regularly on his visits to various international airports. Hence, while in Biggles in Australia, he saw Constellations owned by Qantas arriving and departing from Darwin Airport. Air France used the Constellation for its Algiers-Marseilles-Paris route in the 1950s. Hence the monkeys with surgically implanted diamonds in The Unknown Diamonds could well have made the trip in one of these airliners.

By the 1960s, airlines were replacing their Constellations with newer jet propelled airliners. Unwanted Constellations were then picked up by smaller airlines and used for carrying freight. Hence it is entirely plausible that Count Alexander Stavropulos would have picked up two cheap ex-airline Constellations for use in his air transportation business. These aircraft would feature prominently in Biggles and the Gun Runners, where Biggles would fly one, even doing a sideslip to evade an attacking fighter.

In Derivative works[]

  • In the Action Comics strip Pyrenean Manhunt, Biggles and Ginger are sent to investigate an Air France Constellation which had crashed in the Pyrenees while carrying a valuable load of diamonds.
  • In the Vandersteen comic De valschermspringers, a Constellation carrying the wife of Biggles' friend Jack Nelson is hijacked by an international spy Dillonk. It eventually crashes in the jungles in the northern Philippines when it runs out of fuel.
Constellation-valscherm

Note that Vandersteen has drawn tip tanks on this Constellation, indicating that it is the L-1049 Super Constellation variant. Compare with the one from Chappal Wadi below.

  • The Constellation takes centrestage in the graphic novel Chappal Wadi. Here, Biggles and Algy fly a Constellation loaded with relief supplies on a humanitarian mission to Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War.
Constellation-Chappal

The Air France Constellation chartered and used by Biggles in Chappal Wadi. Although the text clearly states it is a L-1049 Super Constellation, the number of windows and the overall size shows it is an earlier model L-049 Constellation. F-BAZD was an actual Air France L-049 Constellation but it was sold in 1950.

Specifications[]

Details are given here for the basic L-049 version, the one most likely used in Gun Runners and Chappal Wadi.

  • Length: 95 ft
  • Wingspan: 123 ft
  • Empty weight: 39,392 lb
  • Max. takeoff weight: 86,250 lb
  • Engines: 4 Curtiss-Wright Cyclone radial engines, 2,000-2,500 hp each
  • Maximum speed: 340 mph
  • Cruise speed: 280 mph
  • Range: 4,300 miles
  • Service ceiling: 35,000 ft
  • Accommodation: 4-5 flight crew, several cabin crew, 54 passengers
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