The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was one of the last generation of large intercontinental piston engined airliners. With Super Constellations and DC-7s they dominated the worlds’s airways in the 1950s.

The Stratocruiser was a commercial version of the C-97 military transport which was, in turn, a development of the Boeing B-50 and B-29 heavy bombers.

It was an efficient airliner for its time, its double-bubble fuselage made it a two storey airliner with a luxury lounge or cocktail lounge on the lower level.

Only 55 Stratocruisers were made but, together with Lockheed Super Constellations and Douglas DC-7s, these stately airliners reigned on the world’s airways until the late 1950s when the first jet airliners began entering service.

This model represents a Stratocruiser of Pan American Airways.

Minicraft 1/144 kit made by Leigh Edmonds in September 2000.