Created by acclaimed filmmaker Jerry Fairbanks for the Boeing Co. in the immediate post-WWII era, “Tomorrow’s Airplane Today” celebrates the Stratocruiser. (This version of the film comes from a film archive and is silent; in release of course the film had a soundtrack. Our other version has the soundtrack, but this picture is gorgeous, we just had to show it off)

The film features rare views of the Boeing plant in Seattle as it looked during WWII — completely covered in camouflage netting and paint. It also shows various Boeing products including the B-29 upon which the Stratocruiser was based.

The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a large long-range airliner developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter military transport, a derivative of the B-29 Superfortress. The Stratocruiser’s first flight was on July 8, 1947. Its design was advanced for its day, its innovative features included two passenger decks and a pressurized cabin, a relatively new feature to transport aircraft. It could carry up to 100 passengers on main deck plus 14 in lower deck lounge; typical seating was for 63 or 84 passengers or 28 berthed and five seated passengers.

The Stratocruiser was larger than the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation and cost more to buy and operate. Its reliability was poor, chiefly due to problems with the four 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major radial engines and their four-blade propellers. Only 55 Model 377s were built for airlines, along with the single prototype.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com