The first of seven Stratocruisers delivered to UAL during late 1949 and early 1950, seen during a pre-handover photo sortie off the Washington coast. N31225 served UAL from 28 September 1949 until sale to BOAC as G-ANTX on 29 December 1954. Photo obtained from Boeing.

AOA's "Flagship Great Britain" at Boeing Field before delivery to the airline. Served from 13 June 1949 until AOA was merged into Pan Am on 25 September 1950. Damaged beyond repair in a belly landing at Tokyo on 9 July 1959. From AOA over 60 years ago.

It was a treat to see these aircraft on visits to Frankfurt in the 1970s. This aircraft of the Texas ANG is seen taking off

This Stratofreighter, owned by Stratolift Inc, shows misleading identification marks. It is ex USAF 52-0883 (with some difficulty '0883' can be seen below the faded U.S. Air Force titles on the nose), but the tail clearly shows '0237'. This is because the original tail fin was damaged, and it was replaced with that of 53-0237 (cn 17019). The missing cowling of engine #3 suggests that this aircraft had already been withdrawn from use at the time. It was slowly reduced to scrap here during 1994-1996.

Converted to EC-97G. Scrapped at Davis Monthan.

N1025V taxiing for take-off from Sydney's Runway 25. When Qantas replaced its Super Constellations with 707s on the Pacific route, Pan Am was still operating Stratocruisers on most flights because its 707 fleet was stretched thin. By the start of 1960 the Stratocruisers were gone. N1025V was retired and later sold to the Israeli Air Force. Photo by the late Brian White, of Sydney.

First flew on 24.8.70 as N211AS and sold for the transportation of Airbus structures next year. Wfu 1996 and preserved at Bruntingthorpe

A total of 888 C-97s were built, of which 814 were KC-97 tankers. 53-0230 was assigned to the Strategic Air Command in 1955 at Westover AFB, Mass. In 1965 it was converted to KC-97L status at Hayes Aircraft Corp, Birmingham, AL, by the addition of two J47 jet engines and transferred to the Tennessee ANG. To MASDC for storage in 1976 and transferred to the AMC Museum in 10.99

One of three KC-97L tankers supplied to Spain. Note the auxiliary J47 turbojet. Old USAF lettering is coming through on the bulbous nose.