Without Warning

It had a cocktail bar in its belly, and propellers a mechanic checked with a hammer after every flight.Boeing built 56 Stratocruisers between 1947 and 1950, and that was the entire fleet. At least 10 of them were destroyed in accidents. Roughly one in five, and 139 people died aboard them.The Boeing 377 was the most luxurious airliner of its era. A spiral staircase led down from the main cabin to a 14-seat lounge with a bar, in the belly of the airplane, over the middle of the ocean. Upstairs, the