AVIATION: B-29's Big Sister

A great silvery plane rolled out of Boeing's plant at Renton, Wash, last week for its first secret test flight. Elliott Merrill, Boeing's crack test pilot, revved up the plane's four 2,200-h.p. motors till the earth trembled. Then the 130,000-lb. plane skimmed along the runway, lifted easily into the air. An hour later Pilot Merrill grinned: "She handles easier than the B-29."*

This week Boeing proudly let out the 130,000-lb. secret. The new ship is Boeing's postwar superairliner, the "Strato-cruiser," in a military transport version. Boeing says the Stratocruiser can fly 100...

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