This is the forgotten story of the L-500, or the 1000 seater, monster passenger C-5 Galaxy.This plane was so big, that you could take your car with you as luggage and fly to Europe for only 75 dollars. It could transport 1000 passengers, take off and land on any surface and had the sinister motive to force rival Boeing into bankruptcy and end the 747 series.
via.image: Found And Explained
This never built monster was called the Lockheed L-500.In an all-passenger configuration, the L-500 could conceivably carry up to 1,000 people, which would allow airlines to slice New York-London fares as low as $75. The L-500 would have a range of 4,800 nmi (5,500 mi, 8,900 km), and be able to fly at a speed of Mach 0.79, or 830km/h – which you will note is a tad slower than other commercial jets of the time – like the Boeing 707.
via.image: Found And Explained
Passengers would be sat on three decks, with economy passengers on the bottom, business in the middle deck and then first class on the top deck. As the top deck extended the length of the cabin, the rear of the deck would feature a lounge and even perhaps a restaurant for inflight dining. Fancy!
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Initially, Lockheed planed to produce and sell the L-500 as an all-cargo plane only—offering substantial economics to the market. As Lockheed was also pitching the L-2000 supersonic jet, a video you can watch here on the channel, they believed that the passenger market of the future was limited as best.
There was actually an effort to sell the American auto companies a fleet of these l-500s to haul automobiles around, for sales and for passenger operations. Lockheed pitched the L-500 to car manufacturers in Detroit, as a solution to shipping cars around the country to dealers, and also internationally to other markets. This would lead to less time for deliveries, lower inventory costs for dealers, less handling costs, and apparently no lossed sales.
