Lockheed C-69 Constellation

The Lockheed C-69 Constellation is a four-engined, propeller-driven military transport aircraft of the Second World War, co-developed with the Constellation airliner. After the United States entered the war, the Lockheed assembly lines and the L-049 Constellation were taken over by the government, and the airliner was redesignated C-69 for use as an equipment and personnel transport by the United States Army Air Forces. Orders for 50 L-049s from TWA and Pan Am were requisitioned and many more C-69A, C-69B, C-69C and C-69D aircraft were planned, but only 22 were built, 15 for the USAAF and the rest for commercial carriers, and only one C-69C was produced of the planned variants. The XC-69 prototype was rolled out in December 1942, painted olive green and grey with its construction kept secret, but problems developed with its Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engines. It first flew in 1943, and most C-69s were later converted into civilian L-049 airliners.