It was both spacious and groundbreaking in its day. The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser promised a great deal, but proved to be unreliable and expensive to operate. It was developed to be a luxurious long-range passenger plane. Following the close of World War II when William Allen became President of Boeing, the company sought to replace its production of military aircraft with civilian airliners. Looking to capitalize on ground-based runways as opposed to the pre-war Boeing 314 Clipper sea routes flown by Pan American World Airways, Boeing saw the potential for its long-range military transport aircraft being used for transoceanic flights.
Although the nation faced a serious recession in late 1945 in the aftermath of the war, Allen ordered his company to build fifty Stratocruiser airliners. They were based upon the design of its C-97 Stratofreighter, a long-range heavy military cargo aircraft developed during the war, itself a derivative of its B-29 Superfortress. This was a huge gamble, given that no airline had yet placed an order for such a plane. His hunch, however, proved correct when Pan Am placed a $24,500,000 order, the largest ever made for an aircraft in the history of aviation! After the success of its Clipper flights, Pan Am President Juan Trippe held Boeing in high regard. When a Boeing C-97 flew non-stop from Seattle to Washington , DC in six hours and four minutes' time, Trippe saw the aircraft's potential immediately.
As the launch customer, Pan Am began scheduled service from San Francisco to Honolulu in April 1949. That airline, along with BOAC and American Overseas Airlines were all using Boeing 377s on transatlantic routes by year's end. The Stratocruiser program got a further boost thanks to a government initiative offered to Northwest Orient Airlines for opening new routes to Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. The route depended upon their purchase of Boeing 377 Stratocruisers and using them on mail routes, which they did. In January 1950, United Airlines began its B377 service from San Francisco to Honolulu while Northwest 377s were flying from New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, Spokane, Seattle and Honolulu. By 1955, Stratocruisers were the aircraft of choice flying to nearly all global destinations.
Much more advanced than the Douglas DC-6, the Boeing Stratocruiser boasted two pressurized passenger decks with air conditioning. The main desk had seating for one hundred passengers, while the lower deck was a combination of berths and seats. The Pan Am B377 transatlantic service was legendary. Imagine, the airplane speeding through the sky on its way to London as you dine on caviar and tender beef. Afterward, you make your way to the lower lounge to socialize with other passengers aboard the plane while sipping on a refreshing drink. As the evening winds down, you head up to the main cabin, climb into your overhead compartment bed, and travel across the Atlantic Ocean safely tucked away under soft sheets. This sounds more like a dream than reality for those of us used to flying in the Twenty-first Century.
But for others, it was a pleasant, although distant memory. Former Pan Am flight attendant Bronwen Roberts used to fly on the Boeing 377 in the late 1950s. The aircraft was the epitome of luxury, seating up to one hundred passengers for a vacation in the skies. With a cruising speed of just over 300 miles per hour, it was a great plane for transatlantic flights in that decade. “I was so spoiled by flying in those early years when the service was just so incredible,” Roberts gushed while reminiscing. The extravagance began with the food served on board. French restaurant Maxim’s de Paris catered in-flight dining and offered a variety of upscale items, including their famous beef entrée.
"The planes had their own ovens and there was usually a beef tenderloin cooked onboard and sliced in front of you," reported Pan Am Museum Foundation historian John Leutich. Flight attendants were also permitted to indulge in the European fare, which Roberts admitted she did quite often. While she sampled everything from succulent lamb chops to pungent cheeses, one of her favorites was the caviar. When passengers weren't dining on French delicacies, they could head down a spiral staircase to the lower deck lounge. Flight attendants served cocktails there, Leutich said, as travelers mingled with other flyers. They would chat and socialize together, Roberts noted, unlike today's flyers who typically stay quiet and keep to themselves.
Following the evening meal, guests could sleep the night away until they reached their destination. In addition to the lower deck berths, one of the special features of Pan Am's B377s were its overhead beds. Instead of cramming luggage in the overhead space, passengers would open the compartment, pull down the bed and drift off to sleep right above the aircraft seats. Roberts never had an opportunity to sleep in one herself, but claims she was able to try them out in between flights. "I tested them when we were on the ground and they were so spacious," she said. "Even a tall man could stretch out and they were very comfortable."
Despite being one of the most luxurious and advanced propeller aircraft of the day, the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was expensive to operate and had reliability issues. The aircraft’s main problem was a catastrophic failure of the propellers on the four, 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines. The propeller pitch control often failed, leading to a high number of in-flight emergencies and hull-loss accidents. The worst incident of many involving the B377 occurred on April 29, 1952, while the aircraft, operating as Pan Am Flight 202, was over the Amazon jungle on the third leg of its journey between Buenos Aires and New York. The plane had taken off in Rio de Janeiro for Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago when it suddenly disappeared south of the State of Parå. Investigators later concluded that the second engine separated from the aircraft due to propeller imbalance causing an in-flight breakup, resulting in the tragic demise of all fifty passengers and crew.
When the aircraft was first introduced in 1947, economy class had not yet been invented, but as it grew in popularity with both airlines and the traveling public, comfort and luxury were pushed aside in favor of more seats and luggage storage. With the onset of the Jet Age in late 1957, the airlines quickly abandoned the expensive-to-operate Stratocruisers for more modern, faster Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8 jetliners. In total only fifty-four Boeing 377s were built during its production run.
As one aviation era led to another, what was commonplace was soon abandoned. The last flight of the B377 with United was in 1954, the final with BOAC occurred in 1959, and the last with Northwest Orient took place in September of 1960. By November of that year, only a weekly Pan Am Stratocruiser flight from Honolulu to Singapore remained and the type was retired by that airline in 1961.
Until next time…safe travels.
Sounds like it was quite an adventure flying on one of these. Especially loved reading about the the sleeping accommodations.
Great account, George. Didn’t you hate to read about the loss of the last P-63 Kingcobra?