L 188

[st27]

Wasn’t on this airplane long but what a great machine......Nordair had them configured for long range ice patrol .. 8-10 hours was no problem...with fuselage tanks installed, we carried around 65000 lbs of gas!!!!!! Alternates were never a problem. We could go anywhere. Yes, we flew in the Arctic but with this airplane, it wasn’t exactly bush flying.

And with those props, stopping wasn’t an issue either. I remember landing on a dicey runway once and tower asked “How was the braking??” .  As we were parking, the captain smiled and said   “I’ll tell him when I use ‘em!!”.

(Didn’t want to hijack the dash thread so I started this one...maybe we could start a thread for neat aircraft).

[blues deville]

Great photos and post.

Apparently some time after the Electra’s were added, the southern charter flying got so busy it interfered with using 737’s combi aircraft on their northern routes. So another passenger/cargo model L188 was added and used exclusively on the northern scheduled flights. 

[J.O.]

Over a dozen of them are still used as air tankers by Conair, Airspray and Buffalo Airways. Those massive prop blades are helpful in keeping the drop speed down during a descending run to the fire.

[blues deville]

Great photo J.0. 

For an 1950’s (First flight December 1957) aircraft that had a rough start in life it’s certainly carried on with variety of interesting flying.

[vanishing point]

“Didn’t want to hijack the dash thread so I started this one...maybe we could start a thread for neat aircraft“

All aircraft are neat.  That would be a very long thread...

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, vanishing point said:

“Didn’t want to hijack the dash thread so I started this one...maybe we could start a thread for neat aircraft“

All aircraft are neat.  That would be a very long thread...

You are allowed to do so.  Cheers

[blues deville]

7 hours ago, J.O. said:

Over a dozen of them are still used as air tankers by Conair, Airspray and Buffalo Airways. Those massive prop blades are helpful in keeping the drop speed down during a descending run to the fire.

That’s an amazingly clear photo J.O. Was this at a real fire or a demo of some kind? Central BC or in the US. 

[st27]

I thought capturing the prop phasing and pitch was fantastic detail....a fairly complex system for an aircraft designed in the 50’s..no wonder it was nicknamed the Lockheed Electric!

The prop rpm in flight was 1020...pitch varied with power requirements.

Here are some notes for the more mechanically inclined re:prop phasing.

 

[Kasey]

But they had to hang the Allison's (Hercules engines) on the wing upside down with the gearbox on top so the 13+ foot blades cleared the tarmac 

[J.O.]

6 hours ago, blues deville said:

That’s an amazingly clear photo J.O. Was this at a real fire or a demo of some kind? Central BC or in the US. 

That’s a good question. It could be a demo but it’s rare that they’d waste a load of mud for that. As for the location, the guy who took it is from central B.C. so I’m guessing it was from a small fire at the base of a ridge that threatened some homes and a farm west of Kamloops last year.