This is a bit of a headscratcher: Rootes Co. cars (Hillmans and Sunbeams) being loaded or unloaded (the latter, I assume) from a Seaboard & Western Lockheed Constellation in California. Were they such hot sellers that they had to pay air freight to get them from the East Coast to their eager California customers? Or?
Nice International L or R Series COE too.
Here’s another view:
Looks like a Sunbeam Alpine roadster on the back, and a Sunbeam sedan down below. From about 1955 or so, but I can’t pin the year precisely.
MK8 Hillman Minx Sedan and Californian 2 door so 55/56 first of the 1390cc OHV engines, last effort before the Audax body shell came on stream.
Sea shipping would take a long time from England to California. I guess Rootes didn’t want the cars to rust during the voyage so they flew them?
The rust would have started on the assembly line.
From England to CA? That would have been quite the expensive trip back then. And several refueling stops.
Car were/are shipped inside the hulls of ships.
Could be a publicity stunt? “Oh yes, we’re flying them in!” but they arrived and departed on the truck.
I’d have thought a Connie would be a terrible freight plane because of the tapered fuselage, but there you go. N6504C was destroyed in Nigeria in 1968, it probably outlived the Hillmans!
I think definitely about publicity. The perfect array of body styles on the truck, open convertibles and open car windows. The plane – definitely a few glamour shots.
The taper was pretty modest, and this is before the standardized air freight pallets/units were introduced. It actually made a good freighter, and it was a common conversion into the 60s as jets replaced them on passenger routes.
The fact that photos were taken and preserved pretty much means it was a publicity event. Maybe the plane was coming from Canada, where Rootes already had a distribution network for LHD cars?
Perhaps they were going to a west coast auto show?
That sounds very possible. Only one of each and mostly the more sporting/glamorous* models.
* Well, I’m sure the Californian was regarded by many in Britain as glamorous for a Hillman in 1955.
Most definitely glamourous, but something of a curiosity in Australia. For the extra cost over a sedan, we’d buy something bigger and more powerful than a special-bodied Hillman. Back in the day I only ever saw one, on a seedy St.Kilda used car lot.
+1
Yeah auto show. The air shipping would probably have been as much as the price of the car, at least.
I agree that it’s a publicity shot. My dead giveaway is the banner on the trailer – it’s not something one sees on car transporters.
It might be, but more likely it’s that they were airlifted in for a car show. As the the sign on the trailer, that was not uncommon in the 50s. Before deregulation all carriers had to be “common carriers” or “contract carriers”. The majority of car haulers were contract carriers, meaning they only hauled for the company that they had a contract with. So the equipment was dedicated to that company. And signs on them were not uncommon.
Speaking of LA in 1955, Vintage.es has some street scenes from LA in 1955. Lots of cars that weren’t common in the Midwest, but only one foreigner (MG).
https://www.vintag.es/2020/10/california-1950s.html
I believe both of the cars in the bottom level of the carrier are Daimler Conquests. Perhaps all of these cars were due at a car show.
They’re not. The Daimler doesn’t have that distinctive reverse slant C oillar of the Sunbeam
I can’t help but think it would have been more appropriate to transport those cars on a Bristol Freighter, at least from an aesthetic standpoint. Save the Connie for the Jaguars…….
That Connie, N6504C, is a 1049D Super Constellation. There were only four 1049Ds and all were ordered new by Seaboard & Western. The 1049D was a cargo only version – not convertible to passenger use like the later 1049H models S&W owned. A nice color photo of 6504C can be seen at an S&W history site: http://www.seaboardairlines.org/aircraft/l1049-11.htm
http://www.conniesurvivors.com/1-connie_news.htm
Cool website
@kiwibrice: Did not know that the OHV engine made it into the old Minx. I do know however that the older couple across the street from me in the late 1940s had a Californian ragtop in their garage, almost certainly the first “foreign” car I had ever seen. This was in Marshall, IL, so they would likely have bought it from a dealer over in Terre Haute, IN, the one source for all of the imports I would see in those parts through the ’50s. As for the Minx, I never knew it to leave the garage, so I guess that was another example of the all-sales, no-service problem common to a lot of early adopters.
A 4 door Minx was my family’s first car. It was replaced by a Volvo 544 when I was barely 3 years old … I feel like I have some visual memories of both the interior and exterior of the car, but perhaps they are confabulation based on frequently seeing the few remaining family snapshots for decades, not to mention pretty regular coverage of this generation Minx here on CC. I’m glad to learn that it was promoted as the “Famous” Hillman Minx.
Those Connies were the best looking prop airliner! I recall someone is restoring one, would be great to get a ride in one.
There is a restored 1049G at the National Airline History Museum in Kansas City. It wears a TWA livery but is lettered “Save-A-Connie.” This Super G used to make the rounds of major airshows, offering rides, but had not done so in several years. Restoration to flying condition is not out of the question, though like restoration of the museum’s ex-TWA Lockheed L-1011, it will take money.
https://www.airlinehistory.org/constellation
The famous watch company Breitling had a long term relationship with an ownership group in a 1049 Super Constellation. The plane was finished in an attractive Breitling livery. That was an airplane upon which a person (with money and knowledge) could book a flight. The rides were generally available in Europe – not North America. A Breitling sponsored Junkers JU-52 has appeared at EAA/Oshkosh but did not offer rides.
Lufthansa had a long term restoration project of a Lockheed 1649 Starliner (a Super Connie with better wings) that went from Maine to Germany for completion. Due to financial stress this project has been terminated.
At this time there does not seem to be much hope that anyone can ever again fly on a Connie.
I saw the “Save-A-Connie” 1049 at an airshow about 12 years ago; it did not offer rides and it dripped a lot of oil (as most radials do).
I’m an old helicopter pilot who flew old helicopters. “If it isn’t leaking, it’s empty.”
I’m with the shipment for a motor show or similar. Old Billy Rootes could make publicity out of just about anything, so taking his latest glamour cars of an airliner into the show would be right up his street.
Top deck looks like a Sunbeam Alpine (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/carshow-outtake-1954-sunbeam-alpine-at-the-second-glance-its-a-sport-car/) at the rear and a Sunbeam Mk3 convertible under it (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/carshow-classic-1955-sunbeam-mk3-convertible-yearning-for-a-lost-age/) distinguished by the different screen surround and higher door /window line.
One other observation – I presume this transporter was built specifically for hauling Rootes (or at least European cars) given that the 3 on the top and the 2 underneath are a tight fit. Wouldn’t really work with a contemporary US car?
Lufthansa doomed its restoration project in 2018 when it ordered the L-1649 dismantled for shipment from the USA to Germany. The Constellation wing is one piece from wingtip to wingtip, making disassembly a critical and tricky project. But Lufthansa ordered its contractor to do the job and KEEP NO DOCUMENTATION. This virtually guarantees that the L-1649 will never fly again.
The Save-A-Connie Super G was grounded after z major failure of its Number Two engine. The engine was sent out for rebuild but on its return it failed on a test run-up. The second rebuild was successful and the museum now runs up an engine regularly to keep things running.
The Connie may have been pretty, but a temperamental machine. My next door neighbor growing up was a TWA flight engineer and did not have many nice things to say about the Connie. He jumped at the chance (due to seniority) to switch to the 707.
I’ve head the Connies called the ‘worlds best trimotor” And here in Australia we are lucky to have the HARS Connie airworthy. Ex USN VC-121 if memory serves