Great video of the Connie. One of my favorite airliners.
They were magnificent birds, Doc. My first time aloft in an airliner cockpit (along with my big brother, Gary) was as a just pre-teen on a night time ferry flight from BFI to SEA aboard a now extinct PNA (Pacific Northern Airlines, IIRC) Super Connie piloted by a friend of my Dad's, Dave Kellogg, who was a Captain for them.
Second biggest thrill to just being in the cockpit was when Dave insisted Gary and I go back and check the engines to make sure they weren't "on fire" or anything...just a routine check, he added! Gary and I strolled back to the wing and each looked out one side and quickly ran back to the cockpit to report that all four engines seemed to be on fire as they were streaming blue flame behind them. Dave..after first advising there were no parachutes on board... then calmed us down.and told us "...don't worry. That's normal!" Yeah, right, we figured...but soon learned the blue flames came from the turbo compounded PRT (power recovery turbine) superchargers with which each engine was equipped which added some 500 or so HP to each P&W 3350 and the blue flame was their exhaust and it was, indeed, "normal".
Not sure either Gary or I believed it at first but, since there were no parachutes aboard, resigned ourselves to whatever fate awaited us. Pretty much nothing but a grease job landing and taxi in at Sea Tac.
What magnificent airplanes the Connies were. More sex appeal in the Gina Lollobrigida inspired fuselage of each one than in the entire fleets of jet powered Boeing, Douglas and AirBus clones that took their place.
Ted