After eight years of restoration, the Lockheed C-121A Constellation N422NA made its first flight on June 20, 2023. Named “Bataan,” the Connie was used as a personal transport by General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War.
The restoration by Fighter Rebuilders in Chino, California, was carried out for Lewis Air Legends of San Antonio, Texas. Owner Rod Lewis bought the Connie in 2015 from the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino.
According to officials, it is hoped that the newly restored aircraft will be at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023.
My first flight was in a Connie from Newark, I think, to Mobile in 1957. I had just graduated from high school and was returning home after a trip from my Mississippi home to NYC with my brother who was entering the Army. I sat in a window seat over the left wing. When they started that engine with all the fire and smoke coming out of the exhaust I thought we were finished for sure!! But now as a CFI/MEI, I love that beautiful plane and would love another flight in one!!
I was transferred to Charleston AFB, SC in late 1965. When I arrived, I learned that my new squadron had just “upgraded” from the C-121 Constellation to the C-130 Hercules.
I expressed disappointment and my new friend said, “You couldn’t pilot a Connie anyhow, because of the age limit of 35.”
I asked about that strange rule. He said, “The Air Force decided no guy over 35 good handle 3 pieces of tail at the same time.”
The first flight I remember as a child was on a Lockheed Constellation from Topeka, Kansas to Frankfurt, Germany, via McGuire AFB, New Jersey and Reykjavik, Iceland in 1963. It was a military MATS flight (Military Air Transport Service, later to be renamed Military Airlift Command, or MAC) and we were moving to my dad’s new duty station in Karlsruhe, Germany. As a 5-year old approaching the outdoor stairs to the aircraft, the landing gear looked like the biggest things I had ever seen in my life! I will never forget that flight… I got the bug, went on to become an A&P mechanic and licensed private pilot.
Our base football team flew on a C-121 in 1971 from Zweibrucken AB Germany to Torreón AB in Spain to play Torreón when the Air Force had tackle football in Europe. Seats were rearward seating.
I was fortunate to spend my first year with TWA as a Connie Flight Engineer amassing approximately 500 hours in that magnificent machine and loved every minute of that time in 1965!
The Connie is still one of the most magnificent aircraft ever to fly. Knock Lockheed all you want – their record speaks for itself. Boeing builds good aircraft but still cannot make them look as good as the Connie.
I remember seeing an old Connie at the small airport in Palacios, Texas several years ago, appeared to be in flying condition but likely being maintained or restored. It was sitting in an old hanger with no one around. It is probably still there, I haven’t been there in awhile, but it was absolutely an impressive sight to see…