Boeing 377

The Boeing 377, sometimes called the Stratocruiser, was an airliner made by Boeing after World War II. It was made from the C-97 Stratofreighter, which was a type of Boeing B-29 Superfortress used to move troops around. The Stratocruiser first took off on July 8, 1947.
The Stratocruiser had four piston engines. It had a pressurized cabin and two decks. Airlines could fly for much longer with the Stratocruiser, to places like Hawaii.
However, the Stratocruiser was a lot more expensive than the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation. Only 55 Stratocruisers were made for airlines.
Design and development.
The Boeing 377 used the bottom and the wings of the B-50 Superfortress. The 377 was bigger than the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-6 and it could fly for longer. Boeing stopped making the 377 in 1950.
Pressurization (first used on the Boeing 307) meant that if the plane was flying at , to the passengers it would be like they were on the ground.
History.
56 Stratocruisers were made. 55 of these were made for airlines.
The Stratocruiser flew to Hawaii as well as many other places. It was one of the only planes with two decks (another one was the Breguet Deux-Ponts) until the Boeing 747 was made.
In the early 1960s the Stratocruiser was overtaken by jet planes like the de Havilland Comet, Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.
Different types of Boeing 377.
Many other types were made, but most of them only had changes made to the shape of the windows.
Aero Spacelines Guppy.
A company called Aero Spacelines started changing 377s to planes called Guppies in 1960s. There were three types: the Pregnant Guppy, Super Guppy, and Mini Guppy.
The first of them was the Pregnant Guppy. After this they made the Super Guppy and then the Mini Guppy. The Super Guppy and the Mini Guppy had turboprop engines.
Accidents.
The Stratocruiser had 13 hull-loss accidents between 1951 and 1970. A hull-loss accident is when a plane is damaged so badly it cannot be fixed. 140 people died in these. The worst accident happened on April 29, 1952.