Lockheed 89 Constitution

1948


PASSENGER/TRANSPORT	Virtual Aircraft Museum / USA / Lockheed

Although two prototypes of the Lockheed 89 Constitution were built for the US Navy, under the designation XR60-1, no production examples of this large transport aircraft resulted because development of the 4101kW Wright Typhoon turboprop engines intended to power production aircraft was abandoned. As it was, the Constitutions were flown with engines of only 2610kW for test purposes. As military transports, the 57.63m span Constitutions would have carried a crew of 12 and 168 service personnel on two decks.

Comments

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Roger Michael Milner, e-mail, 16.04.2011 05:44

Remember seeing a picture of this airplane or one quite similer asm a child, My Dad, First-Class Petty Officer out of Moffent Field in 54?-58was flight engeer, Roger Maddy Milner.

Jay Bauer, e-mail, 12.02.2011 17:21

My father was one of the pilots on this aircraft and flew both of them. He still has his log books and has the flight manual for it. He has all the stories too.

Ben Beekman, e-mail, 16.01.2011 23:50

If I remember correctly, Harry Truman was president in 1948 (some called him "high-tax Harry") and his personal aircraft was the Lockheed Constitution.

Leroy McVay, e-mail, 12.01.2011 05:37

1953, AN on line crew at North Island. One of these came in, stood fire bottle on port wing for start up. Some how got a stack fire on #2. Signaled for a 2 finger run up to suck the fire out. Took care of that problem!

Bob Duff, e-mail, 29.12.2010 23:35

I was in the fueling crew of VR-21 Barbers Point in 1951. I spent a half day on Stbd wing of one of these. I didn't think I'd ever get it fueled.

Don Safer, e-mail, 18.10.2010 00:06

As can be gathered from the "comments" posted here, the Constitutions were indeed operational.
My supervisor for most of my time with GTE Lenkurt, San Carlos California ('68-'83) was Charles (Charlie) Bell, a former air crewman aboard the Constitutions. He told us several stories about them but the only thing that comes to mind is the unreliability of the engines. They would carry a spare engine on it's regular flights to Hawaii and would often do an engine change there.

Gene Richards, e-mail, 06.10.2010 18:21

I rode in the R6O Dec 26, 1950, NAS North Island to NAS Moffett. My seat was right behind the cockpit bulkhead which housed a beautiful scale model of the USS Constitutiion enclosed in a glass case.

Clem Miller, e-mail, 03.10.2010 05:06

AS a kid in the early fifties we referred to this aircraft as the R SIXTY, which is wrong. It is a R 6 ZERO, R being Navy for transport, 6 being 6th design by Lockheed and 0 (zero) Navy code for Lockheed

Robert B. Stewart, e-mail, 05.01.2010 04:15

While stationed at Alameda with VR2 I caught a hop from Moffit to NAS North Island, San Diego on one of these. If I had realized how underpowered it was, I probably would have hitchhiked like I normally did.

James Pundsack, e-mail, 06.08.2009 01:29

Former Crew Member looking for the specificaion of this aircraft.

Phil van Leeuwen, e-mail, 10.04.2009 00:15

When I was a tyke growing up in Buffalo, NY, my dad took us all out to Buffalo Municipal Airport to view and enter the R60. It was a gargantuan aircraft to such a little kid and I'll never forget it. Sometime later, I bought a bunch of press release photos of the R60 and other aircraft of the same period. I just came from my bedroom after looking for them and found an empty envelope where they had been. I'm scratching my head and most assuredly NOT happy about this. I'll keep looking and ask everyone in the family what the hell happened to them. If I find them, I'll have sharp copies made professionally and send them to you. In the meantime, I'm going to start pulling fingernails out of people here. Best of luck with your book in any case. Phil van Leeuwen, Lawrenceville, NJ

Donald Johnson, e-mail, 21.03.2008 08:04

If still timely, you should contact my father by us mail. He was part of the VR4 detachment sent to Burbank in April 1948 to prepare for Navy acceptance in July. He remained with the project until late 1948. He has some photos and anecdotes that might be of interest to Steve.

Donald K. Johnson ATCM USN Ret.
PO Box 595
Esparto, CA 95627

Frank Powers, e-mail, 26.08.2007 18:22

Hi if anyone has any orginal pictures and material on the R60-1 Constitution please send this material to Steve Ginter1754 Warfied Cir. Simi Valley CA 93063. Steve is puting material I have collected over the years into a book to be publish latter this year. All help would be greatly appreciated.

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