I crossed the Atlantic in a Stratocruiser, the civiiian version of this plane, in June 1955. I was 5 years old. An hour out of Goose Bay Labrador the left inside engine caught fire. The fire was extinguished and we returned to Goose Bay, where we sat on the tarmac for 12 hours while the engine was repaired. On the second attempt, just after passing the point of no return (closer to destination than point of departure) in the mid-Atlantic the engine caught fire again. Again it was extinguished and we continued into Shannon Ireland on 3 engines. The early days of trans-Atlantic flying were a bit more interesting than they are now.

Nothing like the sound of big radials passing in the distance. Never gets old!

My dad was flight engineer on one of these, early sixties. He used to say that after babying R-4360s all day, raising three kids was a piece of cake.

My dad was a crew chief on these from 58 to 65, then a flight engineer. He was at Floyd Bennett in Brooklyn. I remember sitting in it with wheels chocked and running, what a sound, scary for a 6 year old. When he was a mechanic I remember how filthy he got. Dad worked hard. He'd love this.

As a young kid in the early 50’s I lived a few miles east of Heathrow, and I can clearly remember watching those great lumbering planes passing over to line up on the main runway. The sound of those huge radials on take off brings back so many memories. Thanks for this great video!

Perfect. Thanks for not talking and for not adding music. This is how every aviation video should be. Subscribed.

Lovely to see the old girl still in action. In their day they were known as the biggest three-engined aircraft in the world since they seldom arrived anywhere with all four running, despite the heroic efforts of the engineers.

Who doesn't LOVE the sound of round engines...

I didn't know that any of these were still operational. I was a crew chief on a KC-97L in the early 70's. That 'ol girl had personality. Wish I had a dime for every spark plug I changed! LOL

Just think, this was a daily occurrence at every big airport in the late 1940’s & 1950’s. What a show!

Breathtaking. So impressing to see one of the last piston giants in action. Wish I was there to hear and smell this awesome plane.

Finally, something that burns more oil that my '62 Chevy. Neat aircraft and so wonderful to see one in it's natural element.

I was in crash fire unit in the USAF. We had to have a truck on standby for every engine start up.I still remember the sound of this mighty bird.

I flew commercially in this type of bird back in the early 1950's when I was very young. They were a blast to walk downstairs and sit in the belly looking out the big windows and I flew from New Mexico to Washington D.C. I miss flying low and looking at the landscape up close and flying into the clouds.

She lookes quite impressive in the air when those engines stop smoking, 60 odd years ago she would be the queen of the skies, briefly. Great sound.

Dad ground crewed on the tanker variant during his time in the USAF in the early 60s. In the 90s Academy Models came out with a 1/72 scale model of the KC version that I built and mounted on a nice display base for either a birthday or Father's Day. Unfortunately I reclaimed that model 5 years ago when we were cleaning out his condo where it sat here in my place until this past spring when by happy accident a co worker of an artist friend of mine needed some help moving some display cases at a local air museum and to get some sizes for an art project they wanted. When we returned with the finished art I donated the model in my dad's name where it can be enjoyed after I'm gone and to honor the ground crew guys that make it possible to kick the tires and light the fires.

That is a lot of smoke. So much of that fuel is still unburnt. Really makes you realize how clean burning engines have become in the past 70 years or so. Great video.

In the 1950's, I saw Stratocruisers (and Constellations) up close, static and taxiing, at London Heathrow. My uncle was taking building progress photographs of a new BOAC maintenance hanger. Unforgettable.......

Beautiful. Many would not consider the C-97 beautiful. But I do.

My Father-in-Law was a boomer on KC-97s and KC-135s for many years, He retired as a MSGT. Smokey, old 4360"s. As an Air Fore brat I remember seeing both aircraft all the time.

As a boy, once sat by that open cockpit window landing at Prestwick in the 1950's when BOAC had several Stratacrusers in their fleet; all named after Imperial Airways flying boats of the 1930's.

Spent four wonderful years in SAC flying in this tough old bird over the pole refueling B-52's. Never lost a mission.

My dad ferried the last NWA Stratocruiser to retirement in late 1960. Flew them for years.

As kid i remember seeing these ships flying in and out of Norton AFB in San Bernardino. some of my grammar school friends were the children of enlisted crews.

Grew up listening to these arrive and depart from Philadelphia Airport. Lotsa memories. I was a kid at the end of the prop era........ Nice!

Among many, many military airlift flights, I had one flight in a C-97 from Offutt AFB to March. Back then, it was just a way to get home on leave and I don't have a single memory of it. Mow I wish I had paid more attention.

Those R-4360s belch smoke like hell at startup! 💨💨💨💨

Just saw this during WWII Weekend at the Mid Atlantic Air Museum. Truly is a thing of beauty.

I used to see C-97Gs takeoff and land ar Van Nuys Airport at the 146th Tactical Airlift Wing. We lived on the North side of Van Nuys Airport. Loved the sound of those Pratt & Whitney twin Wasp radial piston engines.

The Stratocruiser and the Connie, beautiful.

These big planes entered service in 1947, only 44 years after the Wright Bros. flew at Kitty hawk in 1903- what an astonishing rate of technological advancement in those 44 years! It has now been 118 years since 1903, and we're planning travel to Mars - put that in your pipe and smoke it!

The 28-cylinder four-row R-4360 Radial is the largest-displacement aviation piston engine to be mass-produced in the United States. what a sight.

Great footage, thanks. Those 4 row P&W 3,500 hp R4360s radials were smoky engines for sure. When I was a kid I flew several times in BOAC's Stratocruisers and always loved the moments when the props' pitch was reversed on touch-down to save the plane's brakes. I used to feel very sophisticated going down the spiral staircase for a ginger ale in the bar down there! They were the Jumbos of the fifties.

I would pay good money to see this fly in person.

F**k, that was intense. Impressive someone under the age of 80 still knows how to fly it.

As a kid I got to travel back and forth between San Fran and Oahu, as my Father was Flight Eng and Pilot at different times with Pan Am. Then later he along with several Americans, were involved in taking several , a lot of these, to Israel and boy are there some stories on that, like the time they almost ditched one, due to head winds crossing the Atlantic and no one was supposed to know they were going to Israel. lol I can laugh about it now, but they lost the last engine, no fuel left, just after landing at a French Air Force field, just over the coast. Dad said that was the leanest those motors had ever run. Or how Israel had modified the rear with doors for aerial drops. I have pics of these flying in formation, in Israel's Independence Day parade. Biggest memories were the long Pacific flights and the people you met. Pan Am was a fantastic place for crews and families back then, I have fond memories.

My father, Robert.Hacker was a flight engineer for boac in early 50's on these ,but the passenger version.Said they REQUIRED too much maintainece for civilian application.Connies ultimately replaced them.

Nothing like the sound of the four Merlins on a Lancaster or the Allison's of a C-130. However, still a wonderful old airliner. When flying was an adventure. 👍

In 1945 my late mother was working on the B-29 line at Boeing Renton WA. When the war ended she was shifted over to work on the prototype C-97. I still have her Boeing monthly employee magazine she kept, that feature the aircraft.

It's hard to remember back to a time when the USAF was powered by reciprocating (piston) engines. Jets and turbo props dominate, but there remains something special about a big radial engine. The noise and the raw power of internal combustion, and the smell of high octane avgas cannot be duplicated.

There is a C-97 that has been turned into a restaurant dining area at the airport in Colorado Springs. The bird has Texas National Guard on the side so you have to wonder how it got to Colorado. Great experience sitting and eating inside one!

The C-97 was the basis for the 377 Stratocruiser, the largest airliner of its day.

I worked on KC-97s at Mt. Home AFB Idaho in 64-65. Love these old recips! AF, MSG, Retired.

The Boeing 377 Stratocruser is such a beautiful old airplane. I would love to see this beautiful plane in person. I wish more of the old planes of yesteryear would have been saved.

I was 17 and a Navy recruit when I rode to Tokyo - facing aft - in a USAF C-97. Only military officers of high rank had windows seats. Interim stops were Honolulu and Wake Island. Dave Scherer.

In 1972 or '73 I flew in one of these! I was in Civil Air Patrol as a kid and our squadron was flown to Wright Patterson AFB to visit the museum. We got to stay in the VOQ overnight & then were flown back courtesy of the USAF. It was so cool for a bunch of aviation geeks! Good times, thanks for posting!👍😎

Thinking about aircraft like these in retrospect is crazy. Spinning blades, taking the better part of half an hour to get started, warmed up and ready to move. Taking multiple people to get it started and moving. Its crazy to think about, given the history of aviation is only just over 100 years old.

Nothing like the sound of those big radials!

I was privileged to be crew on this same aircraft when it was part of Grace Aire Medical Foundation, and we flew to Haiti with a full plane load of supplies including 2 trucks and a water purification trailer along with 4 wheelers, tires and building supplies. What a great lady she is and I'm very glad she is still doing what she does best.

I had no idea there was a C-97 still flying. That's awesome! When I was a boy back in the early 60s in Tennessee I remember the Air National Guard's KC-97s flying over all of the time with their added on turbojets. I didn't know to relish that sound back then and I don't remember what it sounded like. That's sort of sad to me. lol Edit: listen to those radials singing in harmony at the end. 😍

What a magnificent, wonderful, awesome, ugly airplane! Looks like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a B-29 or a C-130. Absolutely stunning personality!

I miss fly big radials. It took both hands, both eyes, and both cheeks to start a warm or hot radial. Today I can start a GE -90 with one hand... from the galley. Thanks for posting. It brings back memories of when I got paid to be a pilot, and not a manager.

They were magnificent planes for their era. It was exciting.

Magnificent aircraft from a bygone era.. A pleasure to see and hear such classics take to the skies 👍

My Father flew the KC-97 tanker version of this aircraft. He enjoyed the `modern` step up from the KB-50 tanker.

The propellor pitch was controlled by electric motors through gears including reverse pitch which was a tremendous strain on the motors. The 4360 engine develops tremendous torque, horse power rating aside. During flights across the Pacific to Hawaii and back the engineer was constantly adjusting the pitch on the four huge propellers. The out of sync condition caused a major vibration throughout the aircraft. The plane was a cargo version and had hundreds of stainless steel tie down loops hanging from its bare airframe. All would ring or rattle until the engines got back in sync, then would slowly start again over and over. The cockpit was immune to the racket since they had a door to the cockpit. All aboard the aircraft were at the mercy of the thunder of the four three thousand horse power engines pulling us through the night and across the Pacific Ocean for ten Long and noisy hours .

The first and only time that I ever saw one of these was back in 1973 when I was stationed at Eglin AFB, Fl. It was sitting out on the flight line for a few days and then it was gone.

My father flew the KC-97 Stratotaker in the 50's-60's. He later flew the HC-97 rescue then transitioned to the HC-130. I was inside one of the HC-97's as a very young kid but never got to see or hear one running or in flight.

I was on duty at nha trang ab in late 1966, saw one taxi and take off. Lots of noise but it was beautiful to watch.

I worked on Kc-97's in SAC at Homestead afb, and Otis AFB. Later I worked on the same airplanes in the Ohio ANG, we converted them to L models there. I was in charge of the flight simulator in 1968. Lots of good memories...

What a magnificent noise she makes! Love the old piston planes!

I was a weather observer at Sheppard AFB from 1971, to 1975, and there were 4-C97’s, and (I think) 5-KC97’s parked on the ramp next to the remote observation site. I went TDY to Mather, then McGuire, and when I came back, they were all gone. Beautiful aircraft.

No "skeeters" around that airfield for a few days after that.

Love the sound of the old radials!!

I was a recip engine mechanic when I was in the USAF from '62 to '66. I worked on the HC-97G when I was in the 55th Air Rescue Sqd. stationed at Kindley AFB, Bermuda. Those 4360-59B engines were a little dirty but they ran forever. We got our aircraft straight from the depot where the booms and upper internal fuel tanks were removed and clam shell doors were put on. It took awhile to get all the oil leaks fixed but since we weren't flying balls to the wall once they were fixed the engines were pretty clean. Always loved the sound those engines made.

Two were modified for use a Forest Fire air tankers. Both flew in Alaska in that service. Both performed admirably. They were taken out of service in 2000.

Thanks for keeping West-Berlin alive with these planes.

That is a REAL aeroplane - brings back memories of the ANG KC-97L's that visited the UK in the '70's......

Wow! This is as exciting as watching videos of the vintage Lockheed Connies starting up and taking off!

Rode a Pan Am Stratocruiser from San Francisco to Honolulu over 70 years ago. Just over 9 hours. Surprised to learn any were still flying. As I recall, not too many were in commercial service (under 100??). Tough to maintain and expensive to operate, as well as involved in several major incidents with a lot of lives lost. Propeller issues in some cases. I guess the same wing and engines as the B29.

Excellent. I remember the early days of passenger jets flying over my house in Arlington Virginia, but DC-6's, DC-7's and Lockheed Constellations flying over all the time. Beautiful and that wonderful sound. From 3rd grade in school onward. I was in the Air Force and saw these refueling aircraft on the tarmac in1972. Thank You for showing this beautiful airplane.

Starting this engines is not only beautiful, it´s hypnotic!!

Getting all the cylinders to be team players is awesome!

B29 at its finest cargo form

Good luck 2 these guys flying this aircraft hope it doesn't fall out of sky someday with everybody on board it from northern ireland

The fuselage was called a "double bubble" because there were two aluminum tubes, a lower one and an upper one, conjoined to make one fuselage. ;-)

Note the air entry gills open for starting and take off. These had to be closed soon after take off or loss of power. Crashes occurred due to omission of this important step. The Boeing Stratocruiser was magnificent but troublesome.

About as cool as it gets. Some very old stuff coming to life again. Love the old aviation relics that fly!

Beautiful aircraft! And so much oil burning as it's taxiing out... I didn't see fire extinguishers on the flightline for startup; I thought these were a must-have.

I remember these aircraft (and B-36's) flying overhead like it was last week, love these planes.

I flew the C-97G from August 1971 to May 1975 from Wiesbaden AB, GE, to Berlin Templehof. Our cover story was "flying cargo to Berlin," but the real mission was photo and electronic reconnaissance. We had a 48 inch focal length camera that used 18 inch wide film and produced 36 inch prints. The camera shot through a retractable panel on each side of the lower forward compartment. It was called "oblique photography." The Berlin Corridors were the only place in the world you could fly over a Russian SAM site without getting a missile up your you know what. We filed flight plans like everyone else, so the Russians knew we were coming but couldn't do anything about it. We could also do infrared photography with the 10 inch camera mounted in the fuselage and shot straight down. We often took pictures of airplane outlines on airfields after the planes had departed. For a 44 year Cold War history lesson look up The 7405th Support Squadron or The Berlin for Lunch Bunch. We would brief at 0800, takeoff at 1000, go to Berlin, eat lunch, and go home in time for happy hour. By the way, in reference to the comment below on oil consumption, each engine burned 2 gallons per hour and the oil drum in back had an electrical pump on it to refill the tank on the engine. It was a great experience for a new pilot and an important mission that went on for 44 years. No ever crashed in the East or was shot down. It was a low risk and high reward operation. The Squadron motto in Latin meant "Supply the Truth." I always thought it should be "We're low, slow, and they know we're coming." Major Tom Weinzierl, USAF, (Ret)

I remember a California Air National Guard C-97 flying in and out of Van Nuys Airport back in the 60's. Graceful.

what a beautiful footage of this wonderful awe worthy aircraft...and the great people that keep them flying/ God bless and thank You!!

IN 1965 I WAS IN THE BACK OF ONE OF THESE IN THE KC-97 VERSION AND NOTICED THAT AS IT FLEW THE FUSELAGE ACTUALLY TWISTED DURING TURBULANCE. THE FIGURE 8 DESIGN ALLOWED FLEX BY DESIGN, BUT STILL IT REALLY MADE YOU TAKE A SECOND LOOK.

I remember hearing those old brakes squeal every time they were applied

Wow what a beautiful aircraft

They were death traps. The B29 variant suffered 25% losses due to accidents or fires. In 1955 my dad flew from Sydney to LA in the Stratocruiser version with PanAm. It lost an engine close to Fiji. He had to wait a week for a spare to be flown out and fitted, then another engine caught fire on takeoff in Honolulu. He caught a ship back. He was away for two months instead of two weeks. Later he flew in a Connie with Qantas instead.

I got to hitch refueling rides in these beautys with buddys in the air refueling squadron stationed at Shilling AFB in Kansas in the early 60's. Engines were 28 cylinders each, radial, 7 rows of 4 .they did burn oil, in addition to the central reserve oil we had a 55 gallon drum to hand pump transfer. Good ole days

walk around, if there wasn't oil on the ground, there wasn't any oil in the engine

google the "Berlin for lunch bunch". Mid 70's I think we had the last C97's (not KC's) in active airforce. Just one type of aircraft of many over the years that flew the Berlin air corridors following the Berlin Air Lift up until ~ 1990.

Damn, if only I was rich… what an awesome aircraft!

You can see where Trabant designers got their ideas on smoke-free exhaust from.

I remember seeing them at Shaw AFB in the 70's. Them and Constilations. Amazing aircraft.

Absolutely beautiful aircraft. Smokey beast. They don't build them like they used to. One for Greta.

What a super cool plane... I love it, love it, love it!!!!

I can smell the oil from here. Very cool.

I was at Hagerstown when the MATS Connie came in. This puts that event in the shade.

I just love the sound of those radial engines at low speed idle. They sound kinda like an idling Harley Davidson... Raw power at rest.....

My father flew one of thesefor twelve years for sac in omaha nebraska. He went around the world several times as a flight engineer.

The C-124s ran the same engines. Dover AFB had a slew of them back in the late 50s. They were work horses.