Old Street Scenes

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c1952 photo of a Pan American World Airways Boeing 377 Stratocruiser being taxied/marshaled across Sepulveda Boulevard where Sepulveda passes underneath the southeast end of Los Angeles airport. The 377 was a direct descendant of the WWII B-29 Superfortress. Just a few more years and the 707 and DC-8 would put the "Strats" out of work. 377s with this tye of propeller (there were several types of propeller used on the 377) had a habit of becoming uncontrollable and "running away" and causing, in some cases, engine separation and several crashes. In about 1955 a Pan Am 377 suffered a propeller runaway at night between Hawaii and San Francisco. The flight engineer was able to secure the engine before the prop tore the engine off of the wing. The captain flew to the nearby Ocean Station ship (a ship that stood halfway between the islands and the mainland), waited for sunrise, and then performed a textbook ditching near the ship and all of the passengers were rescued. In military use the 377 was known as the C-97 Stratofreighter and the KC-97 refueling tanker. Four 28-cylinder Pratt and Whitney R-4360 radial engines. Yes, they sounded wonderful.