Amazing Connie

[planedriver]

https://worldwarwings.com/after-5-years-of-building-rc-connie-it-finally-takes-off/?fbclid=IwAR3q5Bpdi5smGW04ydvGHqVtptkyMNltuZ_JcK2248xFknw6oyCS_ySkZW4

[IBob]

What a beautiful aircraft they were!  My folks took me to Heathrow as a kid to watch them come and go.......)

[Methusala]

Only have to cross the Tasman Sea now to see the last flying Connie in the world!

[facthunter]

HARS have one flying.  Nev

[onetrack]

I went aboard the HARS Connie when she was in Kununurra in the late 1990's. What a fantastic effort that was, to restore that machine!

 

One of the Q engineers told me about the vast amounts of pigeon poop that they had to dig out of the nose behind the instrument panel! He said he couldn't believe that pigeons could fill up an area like that with such a volume of poop.

[Methusala]

I was returning to Aus from Zurich and as we taxied out I saw the Brietling Connie taxi in. Must have been one of its last flights as it was withdrawn from service in 2016 because of corrosion in the spars.

[planedriver]

4 hours ago, IBob said:

What a beautiful aircraft they were!  My folks took me to Heathrow as a kid to watch them come and go.......)

You may have even seen me there on my push-bike watching the planes. I was there almost every other weekend.

[IBob]

A strong aircraft too: as I recall the US met. people had a beefed up version that they used to fly into storms to gather data.

[IBob]

From Wikipedia:

"Among the types of aircraft that have been used to investigate hurricanes, are an instrumented Lockheed U-2 flown in Hurricane Ginny during the 1963 Atlantic hurricane season. Other types include the A-20 Havoc, 1944; B-24, 1944–1945; B-17, 1945–1947; B-25, 1946–1947; B-29, 1946–1947. WB-29, 1951–1956; WB-50, 1956–1963; WB-47, 1963–1969; WC-121N 1954–1973; WC-130A, B, E, H, 1965–2012."

They were the WC121N, a military version.

[IBob]

VC-121A 48-0614 Columbine, the personal transport of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum

 

[Garfly]

 

 

 

[facthunter]

As to the strength of it I doubt it's built to any higher load stress factors than say a DC6 and similar and that's not that high.   Nev

[Garfly]

And there's this comprehensive (if très romantique) french documentary about the Constellation.

(has english Closed Captions)

 

"Imagined by billionaire multi-talented genius Howard Hughes, the Constellation made an impression. A mythical airliner built by the American Lockheed, it remained the emblem of an era when air transport was a real luxury. Requisitioned by the army during the Second World War, it then ensured many transatlantic connections for a very wealthy clientele, ready to pay the equivalent of 10,000 euros for a ticket. The arrival of jet planes, and especially the 707 put into service by Boeing in 1958, marked the abrupt end of the Constellation. Actor Tchéky Karyo lends his voice to tell the story of this “air star”."

 

 

 

[Garfly]

 

And, since the YouTube algorithm reckons that too many Constellation films are never enough, this one has just turned up.

It's a recently made detailed analysis of the New York midair disaster of 1960. 

It's the accident that was referred to, in the film above, as the last nail in the coffin of the Connie's illustrious career

(despite the fact that the aircraft, itself, was not, in any way, to blame). 

 

 

 

 

 

[rgmwa]

I flew half way around the world in one when my parents moved to Australia in 1950.

Unfortunately I was far too young to remember it, although I do know its registration number - PH-TEP

[facthunter]

I think the one flying at HARS is the only one left flying. Wing spar deterioration is I think, the reason they are grounded.   Nev