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Lockheed EC-121
Super Constellation "Connie” Flies Home To Yanks Air Museum By Steve Hall |
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January 11, 2012 - A Cold War hero will take to the
skies once again as the world’s only flyable Lockheed
EC-121 Super Constellation "Connie” flies home to Yanks
Air Museum for permanent display on Saturday, January
14, 2012.
The Lockheed Constellation was a propeller-driven
aircraft powered by four 18-cylinder radial Wright
R-3350 engines. It was built by Lockheed between 1943
and 1958 at its Burbank, California, facility. A total
of 856 aircraft were produced in numerous models, all
distinguished by a triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped
fuselage. The Constellation was used as a civilian
airliner and as a U.S. military air transport, seeing
service in the Berlin Airlift. It was the presidential
aircraft for U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This historic flight will bring to a close a seven-year project to get this amazing goliath aircraft back into the air. The "Connie" will take off from Camarillo Airport Saturday morning and will fly to it's new home in Chino where it will join 170 aircraft already on display at Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California. |
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After
World War II the Constellation came into its own as a popular,
fast, civilian airliner. Aircraft already in production for the
USAAF as C-69 transports were finished as civilian airliners,
with TWA receiving the first on 1 October 1945. TWA's first
transatlantic proving flight departed Washington, DC on December
3, 1945, arriving in Paris on December 4 via Gander and Shannon.
Trans
World Airlines transatlantic service started on February 6, 1946
with a New York-Paris flight in a Constellation. On June 17,
1947 Pan American World Airways opened the first ever regularly
scheduled round-the-world service with their L-749 Clipper
America. The famous flight "Pan Am 1" operated until 1982.
As the
first pressurized airliner in widespread use, the Constellation
helped to usher in affordable and comfortable air travel.
Operators of Constellations included TWA, Eastern Air Lines, Pan
American World Airways, Air France, BOAC, KLM, Qantas,
Lufthansa, Iberia Airlines, Panair do Brasil, TAP Portugal,
Trans-Canada Air Lines (later renamed Air Canada), Aer Lingus
and VARIG. This aircraft had Top-Secret capabilities and monitored the skies for hostile aircraft for over 44 years during the height of the Cold War often flying missions 24 hours a day. It served over the Pacific as well as Taiwan, South Korea and Iceland during the Cuban Missile Crisis. You need only to take a look inside to see the massive electronic and technological capabilities of this aircraft. |