Lockheed’s Model L-188A Electra prototype, N1881, passes over Lockheed Air Terminal during its first flight, 6 December 1957. (SDASM Archives)
6 December 1957: At 10:28 a.m., Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s Chief Engineering Test Pilot Herman Richard (“Fish”) Salmon, and co-pilot Roy Edwin Wimmer started the Number 4 engine (outboard, right wing) of the new prototype Model L-188A Electra, c/n 1001, registered N1881. Also on board were flight engineers Louis Holland and William Spreuer. In rapid succession, the flight crew started engines 1, 2, on the left wing, and 3, inboard on the right. The prototype then taxied to the eastern end of Lockheed Air Terminal’s Runway 27.¹ At 10:44, Salmon released the brakes and the Electra rapidly accelerated down the runway. It was airborne in just 1,800 feet (549 meters).
Lockheed Model L-188 Electra N1881 flying along the Southern California coastline. (SDASM Archives)
Fish Salmon took the prototype to the U.S. Navy’s restricted missile test ranges off the southern California coastline, flying between Naval Air Station Point Mugu and San Diego. During the flight, the Electra reached 400 miles per hour (644 kilometers per hour) and 14,000 feet (4,267 meters). Salmon radioed, “She controls beautifully. No sweat.”
The Electra was followed by two chase planes, a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star, and a Super Constellation airliner. After the initial flight test, Salmon returned to LAT, landing after a flight of 1 hour, 27 minutes. The test flight was made 56 days ahead of schedule.
The prototype Lockheed Electra. N1881, crosses the threshold at Lockheed Air Terminal’s Runway 15, 6 December 1957. (SDASM Archives)
Lockheed retained N1881 as a test aircraft until April 1961, when it was sold to Friedkin Aeronautics and re-registered as N174PS. It was operated by Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) from May 1961 until October 1968, when it was sold to Holiday Airlines and re-registered as N974HA. The Electra was withdrawn from use and stored at Van Nuys Airport (VNY), just a few miles west of BUR, in October 1968. It is reported to have been scrapped in 1975.
Pacific Southwest Airlines Lockheed L188 Electra, N174PS (c/n 1001) at Lockheed Air Terminal, 23 September 1961. (Wikipedia).
The Lockheed Model 188A Electra is a four-engine, low-wing, commercial airliner with retractable tricycle landing gear, and powered by four turboprop engines. It was operated by a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer, and could carry a maximum of 98 passengers. The L-188A was the first production variant. It is 104 feet, 6.5 inches (31.864 meters) long, with a wingspan of 99 feet, 0.00 inches (30.175 meters), and overall height of 32 feet, 11.6 inches (10.048 meters).
The L-188A was powered by four Allison Model 501-D13 (T56-A-1) turboprop engines. The -D13 is a single-shaft axial-flow gas turbine engine. It had a 14-stage compressor, 6-tube combustor, a 4-stage turbine. It was rated at 3,750 shaft horsepower at 13,820 r.p.m. The engines drove four-blade, square-tip Aeroproducts propellers with a diameter of 13 feet, 6 inches (4.115 meters), at 1,020 r.p.m. The -D13 is 12 feet, 1.0 inches (3.683 meters) long, 2 feet, 3.0 inches (0.686 meters) wide and 3 feet, 0.0 inches (0.914 meters) high. It weighs 1,750 pounds (794 kilograms).
Lockheed Model L-188A Electra N1881 at Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California. (SDASM Archives)Lockheed Model L-188A Electra N1881 at Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California. left profile (SDASM Archives)Lockheed Model L-188A Electra N1881 at Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California. (SDASM Archives)Lockheed Model L-188A Electra N1881 at Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California. (SDASM Archives)
Critical Mach Number (Mcr) = 0.711
¹ In 1967, the name of the Lockheed Air Terminal was changed to Hollywood-Burbank Airport. After several more name changes, including Bob Hope Airport, it is once again known as Hollywood-Burbank. Its FAA identifier is BUR.
The prototype Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, N67900. (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company)
13 October 1950: The prototype Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation made its first flight at the Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, California.
With the expansion in commercial air travel immediately following World War II, airlines required transports with longer range and greater passenger and cargo capacity. They needed airplanes that could provide lower seat-per-mile operating costs than existing types.
To meet these needs, Lockheed considered discontinuing production of the the current L-749 Constellation in favor of developing a completely new turbojet-powered transport. But due to the the time required to design and produce such a completely new design, and the much greater fuel consumption of jet engines, Lockheed determined that the most efficient course would be to improve the existing L-749 Constellation’s design to increase its load carrying capability.
Design of the L-1049 Super Constellation started February 1950, with the design team led by Kelly Johnson.
Lockheed XC-69 Constellation 43-10309 (L-049 NX25600) at the Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California. (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company)
Instead of building a complete new airplane, the original XC-69 prototype, which had been parked at Howard Hughes’ private airport near Culver City, was purchased by Lockheed and flown back to the Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank. After the war, the Constellation prototype was sold to Howard Hughes’ Hughes Aircraft Company for $20,000 and registered as NX67900. In May 1950, Lockheed bought the prototype back from Hughes for $100,000 and it was again registered as NC25600. It had accumulated just 404 flight hours up to this time.
The Lockheed XC-69 Constellation prototype, 43-10309, is parked behind the Hughes XF-11, 44-70155, at Culver City, California, 7 July 1946. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries)
The XC-69 was cut into three sections. A 10 foot, 8.8 inch (3.272 meters) long, 11 foot, 7.3 inch (3.538 meter) diameter, cylindrical section was added forward of the front wing spar, and a 7 foot, 8 inch (2.337 meters) cylindrical section with the same diameter, aft of the rear spar.
The wings, fuselage and landing gear of the L-1049 were strengthened for increased gross weight. The height of the vertical fins was increased 2.5 inches (6.35 centimeters) for improved longitudinal stability. The cabin floor area was increased by 33% to 744 square feet, and cargo volume, 51% to 656 cubic feet.
Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation three-view illustration with dimensions. (Lockheed Aircraft Corporation)
The L-1049 had accommodations for 76–94 passengers and crew. (The L-749A Constellation carried 47–63). Other changes included a 25% increase in cockpit window height, and square passenger windows (a requirement of Northwest Airlines). The fuel load was increased by 5,000 pounds, and the range by 300 miles. The Super Constellation’s cruise speed was cruise speed 25–40 m.p.h. slower due to the increased weight.
L-1049 serial numbers 4001–4014 had cockpit stations for a pilot, copilot, flight engineer and an observer. Beginning with 4015, a radio operator’s station as added.
Illustration of the Super Constellation’s general arrangement from Lockheed Report 7786 Crew Operating Manual for Lockheed Model 1049 Super Constellation Air[planes, revised 1 May 1952. (Lockheed Aircraft Corporation)Total fuel capacity was 3,660 U.S. gallons (13,855 liters). Each engine was supplied by engine oil tank with a capacity of 49 gallons (185.5 liters).
The first production Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, s/n 4001, N6201C. (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company)
The L-1049 was powered by four air-cooled, direct-fuel-injected, 3,347.662 cubic-inch-displacement (54.858 liters) Wright Aeronautical Division 956C18CA1 eighteen-cylinder turbocompound radial engines with a compression ratio of 6.70:1. The turbocompound engine used captured exhaust gases to drive three Power Recovery Turbines. These PRTs were coupled to the engine’s crankshaft. This system added approximately 450 horsepower to the engine’s total power output.
The 956C18CA1 had a continuous power rating of 2,300 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m., and 2,700 horsepower at 2,900 r.p.m. for takeoff. The engines turned three-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers through a 0.4375:1 propeller gear reduction. The engine was 6 feet, 6.47 inches (1.993 meters) long, 4 feet, 7.62 inches (1.413 meters) in diameter, and weighed 2,962 pounds (1,343.5 kilograms).
The L-1049 had a maximum speed (VNO) of 260 knots (299 miles per hour/482 kilometers per hour) from Sea Level to 11,000 feet (3,353 meters). Above that altitude, speed was reduced by 9 knots (10 miles per hour/17 kilometers per hour) for each 2,000 foot (610 meters) increase. Maneuvering speed (VA) was 180 knots (207 miles per hour/333 kilometers per hour). The maximum operating altitude was 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). The cabin was pressurized to 5.5 p.s.i. (0.379 Bar).
The Los Angeles Times reported:
“NEXT THING TO JET—Eighteen feet longer than the standard Connie, Lockheed’s new Super Constellation is announced “to bridge the gap between modern planes and the first American jet transport.” Fifty million dollars in orders have been received.”
LOCKHEED UNVEILS SUPERTRANSPORT
Giant Constellation Carries 110 Passengers Is Forerunner of Transocean Jet Aircraft
Lockheed’s new Super Constellation—18.4 feet longer than the standard Connie—was announced yesterday as “designed to bridge the gap between modern planes and the first Americanjet transport.”
Similar in appearance to its famous predecessor, the prototype of the new ship was flown for the first time last Friday, out of Lockheed Air terminal, Burbank, officials said.
It will be introduced into service with the latest type reciprocating engines, subsequently will be powered with new compound engine and finally will utilize turbo-prop engines as the final link with pure jet transports of the future.
“The new transport will incorporate much of the proven design and equipment of the current Constellation,” Lockheed spokesmen said, “and at the same time will carry all available modern features that testing has proved worthwhile.”
Among teh latter will be electro-pneumatic de-icing such as is used on Lockheed’s high-speed jet aircraft. Old-type rubber boot and hot air de-icing has been found inadequate for higher speeds and altitudes, it was explained.
The Super Connie is described as “the first truly nonstop trans-Atalantic transport ever built, 50 m.p.h. faster on over-ocean runs than competitive airplanes.”
Measuring 113 feet 7 inches from nose to tail, its cabin will carry 76 standard-fare passengers or up to 110 coach fare, 35% more than present Constellations, with 72% more space for baggage and cargo.
Big Navy Engines
The Super Connie is said to be the only transport in the world that will accommodate the powerful new compound Wright engines now developing 3500 h.p. each on long-range P2V patrol bombers built for the Navy by Lockheed.
Its structural strength is such that it can carry wing-tip fuel tanks, as do military jets on long-range flights, should such a feature become desirable to operators.
Fifty million dollars in orders already have been received for the new transport from two airline operators and the military services
—Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, 17 October 1950, Part II, Page 2, Columns 1–3
The first production Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, serial number 4001, registered N6201C, was delivered to Eastern Airlines in March 1952.
Produced from 1951 through 1958, Lockheed built 259 commercial Super Constellations and 320 C-121 military versions.
The first production Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, N6201C, s/n 4001. This airplane was delivered to Eastern Airlines in March 1952. (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company)Eastern Airlines Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation N6203C. (Eastern Airlines)
Major Alexander P. de Seversky in his Seversky AP-7, NX1384, at Floyd Bennett Field, 1938. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
29 August 1938: At 7:37 a.m., Alexander Nikolaevich Prokofiev-Seversky departed Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York, flying a Seversky AP-7 Pursuit, NX1384, an all-metal monocoque monoplane of his own design and manufacture, enroute to the Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California, a distance of 2,457 miles (3,954 kilometers). He completed the flight in 10 hours, 2 minutes, 55.7 seconds, setting a new speed record for an East-to-West Transcontinental Flight. Major Seversky refueled during a 30-minute stop at Kansas City.
Larry Therkelson of the National Aeronautic Association was the official timer for the record attempt.
Seversky AP-7 NX1384, seen from below. In this configuration, the landing gear retracts rearward. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
The Los Angeles Times reported:
SEVERSKY SETS RECORD
Flies across Country in Few Minutes More than Ten Hours
Maj. Alexander P. (Sascha) de Seversky, who flew fighting planes for the Czar of Russia and now builds pursuit ships for the American Army, yesterday notched another hour off the already incredibly narrow time-space separating the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
In a “civilianized” fighter made at his Long Island factory, de Seversky thrashed along the 2600-mile airway from Floyd Bennett Field, N.Y., to Union Air Terminal, Burbank, in ten hours, three minutes, seven seconds, better than 260 miles per hour.
START AND FINISH
He had gobbled a husky breakfast of oatmeal, orange juice and toast in Manhattan as dawn arose over the skyscrapers (at 3:37 a.m. P.S.T.)
Under a blazing Southland sun that shot the mercury to 100 deg. at Burbank, he toyed with a chicken sandwich fifteen minutes after he set his pursuiter’s trim wheels down at exactly 1:40:07 p.m.
De Seversky was greeted—warmly—by Jacqueline Cochran, America’s No. 1 woman speed flyer for whom he was ferrying the all-metal monoplane to Los Angeles. She will retrace his course in the small hours of Saturday, seeking the lion’s share of the $30,000 Bendix Trophy purse.
It was, he said, “Practically nothing.”
TIME WASTED
In a new age of aeronautics, when pilots break records just in the day’s work during routine assignments, de Seversky stands with the best of ’em.
His time and speed would have been materially bettered if he’d been “trying,” he admitted. At Kansas City, plopping down into TWA’s hangars for refueling, he wasted a precious twenty-nine minutes while mechanics tinkered with his tricky gasoline system.
“Once I was traveling more than 300 miles an hour,” De Seversky admitted.
MERELY A WARM-UP
How much faster he could have flown, the esrtwhile White Russian declined to say—”Wait until ‘Jacky’ starts for Cleveland in the Bendix race,” he interposed.
“I used oxygen part of the way, especially when I climbed to 16,000 over the Kansas prairies during a hailstorm,” he said. “This whole flight was nothing but a warm-up. I could have flown nonstop. Instead, I tried different wing loadings and paused at Kansas City. Sometimes I throttled down to less than 240 miles an hour.”
Two hundred and forty!
Between bites of chicken sandwich, De Seversky pointed out that his 1200-horsepower plane can soar 3000 miles without refilling its wing-to-wing tanks that carry 540 gallons of high octane fuel. That, he observed, carries huge military significance.
“We are learning in the Army,” this builder of the nation’s fastest pursuit ships declared, “that bombardment craft are vulnerable to attack from the air unless properly convoyed.
Turn to Page 5, Column 2
Record Upset by Seversky
Continued from First Page
So—the ‘flying fortress’ that cruises 5000 miles must be accompanied by pursuit ships that can go equally as far nonstop. To Europe from America, for example.
THREE UNDER WAY
“In the United States at least three such planes are underway today. I am building one. Others may be twin-engined—such as the ship being readied at the Lockheed plant—and capable of terrific speeds.”
By Christmas of this year, de Seversky promised, a standard military fighter, soon to be released to Air Corps testers, will crack the long-sought-after 400-miles-an-hour mark.
BENDIX MARK SEEN
De Seversky was cool as he braked his craft to a halt under the gaze of Larry Therkelson, official National Aeronautic Association timer. He removed his earphones, slipped out of his jumper and asked, “When’s lunch?” To statements that he had knocked Roscoe Turner’s five-year-old record of 11h. 30m. silly, he only shrugged.
OTHERS IN RACE
Others in the Bendix race will be Frank Fuller and Miss Cochran in Seversky planes, Robert Perlick, Glendale, in a Beechcraft; Robert Hinschey and Charles LaJotte, Glendale, in a Sparton; Ross Hadley, Burbank, in a Beechcraft; George Armistead, Los Angeles, in a Q.E.D. Special; Bernarr Macfadden, New York publisher, and Ralph Francis, former TWA pilot, in a Northrop Gamma; Paul Mantz, Burbank, in a Lockheed Orion; Frank Cordova, New York, in a Bellanca; Lee Gehlbach, New York, in a Wedell-Williams, and Max Constant, Burbank, in a Beechcraft.
—Los Angeles Times, Vol. LVII, Tuesday Morning, 30 August 1938, Page 1, Column 5, and Page 5, Column 2
Jackie Cochran with the Seversky AP-7A, NX1384, at Burbank, California. The landing gear has been modified. Her racing number, 13, has not yet been painted on the fuselage. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
NX1384 was built especially for Jackie Cochran. The AP-7 racer was an improved version of Seversky’s P-35A fighter, which was the U.S. Army Air Corps’ first all-metal single-engine airplane with an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear.
Cochran’s AP-7 was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged, 1,829.39-cubic-inch-displacement (29.978 liter) Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp S1B3-G (R-1830-11) two-row 14-cylinder radial engine with a compression ratio of 6.7:1. It was rated at 850 horsepower at 2,450 r.p.m. at 5,000 feet (1,524 meters), and 1,000 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m. for take off. The engine turned a three-bladed Hamilton-Standard controllable-pitch propeller through a 3:2 gear reduction. The R-1830-11 was 4 feet, 8.66 inches (1.439 meters) long with a diameter of 4 feet, 0.00 inches (1.219 meters), and weighed 1,320 pounds (599 kilograms).
Jackie Cochran paints her race number, 13, of the fuselage of her Seversky AP-7. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
Two days later, 1 September 1938, Jackie Cochran flew this same airplane to win the Bendix Trophy Race from Burbank to Cleveland, Ohio, a distance of 2,042 miles (3,286 kilometers). Her winning time was 8 hours, 10 minutes, 31.4 seconds, for an average speed of 249.774 miles per hour (401.895 kilometers per hour). After a 40 minute refueling stop, and being congratulated for her Bendix win, she flew on to Bendix, New Jersey, setting a West-to-East Transcontinental Speed Record with a total elapsed time of 10 hours, 7 minutes, 1 second.
The Seversky AP-7 and its military version, the P-35, would be developed over the next few years to become the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.
Seversky AP-7 NX1384, c/n 145, with Jackie Cochran’s race number, 13, at Cleveland, Ohio. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
Major Richard Ira Bong, United States Army Air Forces. (U.S. Air Force)
6 August 1945: After serving three combat tours flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning in the Southwest Pacific, Major Richard Ira Bong, Air Corps, United States Army, was assigned as an Air Force acceptance test pilot for new Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet fighters at the Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California.
The P-80A was a brand new jet fighter, and Major Bong had flown just 4 hours, 15 minutes in the type during 12 flights.
Shortly after takeoff in P-80A-1-LO 44-85048, the primary fuel pump for the turbojet engine failed. A back-up fuel pump was not turned on. The Shooting Star rolled upside down and Bong bailed out, but he was too low for his parachute to open and he was killed. The jet crashed at the intersection of Oxnard Street and Satsuma Avenue, North Hollywood, California, and exploded.
Site of the crash of Major Richard I. Bong’s Lockheed P-80A-1-LO fighter, 44-85048, at Oxnard Street and Satsuma Avenue, North Hollywood, California. (Contemporary news photograph)This graphic appeared in the Los Angles Times, 7 August 1945, at Page 3. (Los Angeles Times)General Douglas MacArthur with Major Richard I. Bong.
Richard I. Bong was known as the “Ace of Aces” for scoring 40 aerial victories over Japanese airplanes between 27 December 1942 and 17 December 1944 while flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, which was presented by General Douglas MacArthur, 12 December 1944. [The following day, General MacArthur was promoted to General of the Army.]
The citation for Major Bong’s Medal of Honor reads: “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the Southwest Pacific area from 10 October to 15 November 1944. Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Major Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request engaged in repeated combat missions, including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and in the Leyte area of the Philippines. His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down eight enemy airplanes during this period.”
General of the Army Henry H. (“Hap”) Arnold and Major Richard I. Bong, circa 1945.
The Lockheed P-80-1-LO was the United States’ first operational jet fighter. It was a single-seat, single-engine low-wing monoplane powered by a turbojet engine. The fighter was designed by a team of engineers led by Clarence L. (“Kelly”) Johnson. The prototype XP-80A, 44-83020, nicknamed Lulu-Belle, was first flown by test pilot Tony LeVier at Muroc Army Air Field (now known as Edwards Air Force Base), 8 January 1944.
Lockheed P-80A-1-LO shooting Star 44-85004, similar to the fighter being test flown by Richard I. Bong, 6 August 1945. (U.S. Air Force)
The P-80A was a day fighter, and was not equipped for night or all-weather combat operations. The P-80A was 34 feet, 6 inches (10.516 meters) long with a wingspan of 38 feet, 10.5037 inches (11.84919 meters) ¹ and overall height of 11 feet, 4 inches (3.454 meters).
The leading edges of the P-80A’s wings were swept aft 9° 18′ 33″. They had an angle of incidence of +1° at the root and -0° 30′ at the tip. There was 3° 50′ dihedral. The total wing area was 237.70 square feet (22.083 square meters).
The fighter had an empty weight of 7,920 pounds (3,592 kilograms) and a gross weight of 11,700 pounds (5,307 kilograms). The maximum takeoff weight was 14,000 pounds (6,350 kilograms).
Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star production, alongside P-38 Lightnings. (SDASM)
Early production P-80As were powered by either an Allison J33-A-9 or a General Electric J33-GE-11 turbojet engine. The J33 was a licensed version of the Rolls-Royce Derwent. It was a single-shaft turbojet with a 1-stage centrifugal compressor section and a 1-stage axial-flow turbine. The -9 and -11 engines were rated at 3,825 pounds of thrust (17.014 kilonewtons). The J33s were 8 feet, 6.9 inches (2.614 meters) long, 4 feet, 2.5 inches (1.283 meters) in diameter and weighed 1,775 pounds (805 kilograms).
The P-80A had a cruising speed of 445 miles per hour (716 kilometers per hour) at 20,000 feet (6,096 meters). Its maximum speed was 548 miles per hour (882 kilometers per hour) at 2,700 feet (823 meters) and and 501 miles per hour (806 kilometers per hour) at 34,700 feet (10,577 meters).² The service ceiling was 45,000 feet (13,716 meters).
Lockheed P-80A-1-LO Shooting Star 44-85155, similar to the jet fighter which Major Bong was flying, 6 August 1945. (U.S. Air Force)
The P-80A Shooting Star was armed with six air-cooled Browning AN-M2 .50-caliber aircraft machine guns mounted in the nose.
Dick Bong poses with “Marge,” his Lockheed P-38J Lightning. A large photograph of his fiancee, Miss Marjorie Vattendahl, is glued to the fighter’s nose.
¹ Wing span with rounded wing tips. P-80As with squared (“clipped”) tips had a wing span of 37 feet, 7.5037 inches (11.46819 meters).
² Several hundred of the early production P-80 Shooting stars had all of their surface seams filled, and the airplanes were primed and painted. Although this process added 60 pounds (27.2 kilograms) to the empty weight, the decrease in drag allowed a 10 mile per hour (16 kilometers per hour) increase in top speed. The painted surface was difficult to maintain in the field and the process was discontinued.
6 December 1957: At 10:28 a.m., Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s Chief Engineering Test Pilot Herman Richard (“Fish”) Salmon, and co-pilot Roy Edwin Wimmer started the Number 4 engine (outboard, right wing) of the new prototype Model L-188A Electra, c/n 1001, registered N1881. Also on board were flight engineers Louis Holland and William Spreuer. In rapid succession, the flight crew started engines 1, 2, on the left wing, and 3, inboard on the right. The prototype then taxied to the eastern end of Lockheed Air Terminal’s Runway 27.¹ At 10:44, Salmon released the brakes and the Electra rapidly accelerated down the runway. It was airborne in just 1,800 feet (549 meters).
The L-188A was powered by four Allison Model 501-D13 (T56-A-1) turboprop engines. The -D13 is a single-shaft axial-flow gas turbine engine. It had a 14-stage compressor, 6-tube combustor, a 4-stage turbine. It was rated at 3,750 shaft horsepower at 13,820 r.p.m. The engines drove four-blade, square-tip Aeroproducts propellers with a diameter of 13 feet, 6 inches (4.115 meters), at 1,020 r.p.m. The -D13 is 12 feet, 1.0 inches (3.683 meters) long, 2 feet, 3.0 inches (0.686 meters) wide and 3 feet, 0.0 inches (0.914 meters) high. It weighs 1,750 pounds (794 kilograms).
