BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT BOEING 377 STRATOCRUISER
The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a large long-range airliner developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter military transport. The Stratocruiser's first flight was on July 8, 1947. The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a civil derivative of the Boeing Model 367, the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, which first flew in late 1944. The 377 was one of the most advanced and capable of the propeller-driven transports, and among the most luxurious, but it was troubled by reliability issues in critical areas, and related issues with maintenance costs. Problems included catastrophic structural failures of propellers, failures of propeller pitch control leading to overspeed incidents, problems related to the poor thermal design of the engine, and aerodynamic problems arising from design constraints imposed by the engine's thermal problems. Its service record was marred by a high incidence of in-flight emergencies and hull-loss accidents related to those issues.
The worst accident to 377 Stratocruiser happened on April 29, 1952, when Pan Am Flight 202 crashed in the Amazon Basin about 281 nautical miles (520 km) southwest of Carolina, Brazil, killing all 50 people on board.
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