As a 10 year old, I flew with my family on a "Connie" and to this day I can remember climbing up the boarding steps of this huge silver airplane, At age 72 I can recall it vividly.
The Constellation was my first airplane flight in 1955. Seattle to Anchorage to Cold Bay to Tokyo. 16 hours. Our aircraft even had sleeping berths. Incredible that this aircraft is still alive. Bravo!
My first long distance flight was on a Constellation - thought I was high class society ! No more noisy than today's jets for the most part, as I remember. And the flight attendants were cute ...really cute !
I really enjoyed my first surreal flight on a Lockheed Super Constellation. An elderly gentleman who is no longer with us flew around the world, along with his treasured wife. He said it was the greatest holiday they ever had. They both loved the Super Constellation. Rest in peace Roy, I now understand.
I fueled and oiled these babies back in the late 50's and early 60's for Eastern Air Lines in Miami. The 749's, 1049's, 1049C's, 1049G and Supers. Rode on them many times. Also worked on the DC6's, DC7's, Corvair 440's, Martin 404's. We walked the wings to fuel them, unlike the jets fueled from underneath. Our first jet also was a Lockheed, the Electra L-188 turbo prop. A great airliner. Our DC8's were on the way! Miss those days a lot.
In 11/56, my family and I flew from Detroit Willow Run Airport to Los Angeles and then from San Fransisco back to Detroit on a TWA Super G Constellation. Made 4 stops on the way there and non stop on the return. That trip is still one of my fondest memories.
My first flight was Aug 1955 NY Idlewild to Amsterdam via Shannon. I wasn’t quite 6 but can remember the trip and my visit to the cockpit. I vividly recall the #3 engine exhaust stacks glowing red in the night sky.
I remember seeing my older sister get on a TWA Constellation at Bradley Field in Hartford for a trip to LA to visit our grandmother in, I think, 1957 or 58. By the time my turn came, it was on the latest thing; a Boeing 707 jet. I think the most beautiful thing about this beautiful airplane is the curved and tapered fuselage. It's another wing. Other planes are straight tubes with nose and tail sections added on the ends. The wing shaped curve of the Constellation, that tapers at the tail for those three distinct stabilizers and curves and tapers again into that calm, sincere brow of the head end is just so graceful, so beautiful. I think the Lockeed Constellation is the most beautiful airplane ever made.
What an amazing video of one the most beautiful aircraft ever designed. What an honor it must be to actually step back in time in this piece of history. Thank you for sharing this !!
I remember as a kid travelling near the end of one of the runways at Essendon airport in Australia and seeing planes lined up to take off, all with three red tails. The Connie looked fantastic to a young kid then and still does to a 70 year old guy now!
LOL ! I noticed the smile on the captains face, as the aircraft took off. He was stern and serious until then, but a takeoff he had done countless times, still brought a smile. The sound of those 3000 hp engines is enought to bring a smile !
A TWA Connie in club car configuration carried me to San Diego and US Marine Corps boot camp. She was a beautiful bird and had real class. I'd rate her, except for the cooking, with my inaugural Alitalia First Class flight on a 747 about 10 years later.
I flew with a Super Constellation 1967 from Recife (Brazil) to Lisbon. By train then to Zurich. It was very exiting to review this beauty in your video. Thanks!
I had the privilege of flying to Port Morsby from Cairns (Australia)...part of the "Kangaroo Route by Qantas" flying through PNG/Indonesia/Singapore/Thailand/India/Middle East/Europe/to the UK> in the mid 50's in a Connie. I thought it was the ultimate journey of a lifetime, even at the ripe old age of 4. This was to be one of a dozen flights back and forth between PNG and Oz during the 50's and early 60's to give me a thirst for flying that has never died.Thank you for this video, reminding me of the beautiful lines and sounds that enlighten my senses each time I hear a radial engine aircraft. All Aboard....and safe flying.
I flew with the Breitling Super Connie during the Hamburg Airport Days in September 2011. Weather conditions were similar as in this video. It was a great experience that I can recommend to all Super Constellation fans. Thank you for having shared this video. Kristiaan, Brussels
The 'Connie" as we called it in my 'Canoe Club" days back in the 50's and 60's was a terrific aircraft. We flew them into hurricanes back then. Ours were equipped with two large radomes. The top one housed the APS 45 height finding radar and the lower dome was the APS 20 search radar. We flew in and out of the storms at several altitudes and there was always one of our aircraft in a storm while out at sea. These were great aircraft and for it's time one of the best. Those P&W 3350 engines served us well and rarely gave us any major problems in flight.
Kelly Johnson was not only a magnificent aircraft designer…he was an absolute artist. The Connie is just a Masterpiece. Oh yeah, and The P 38 Lightning was another one of his Mona Lisa’s. What an eye.
In 1955, I made my first airplane flight from NYC to Frankfurt, Germany aboard a Super Connie.. I was only 4 so I don't have too many memories other than it was very exciting .
I flew from Amsterdam to Winnipeg in a Nordair Canada, Super Constellation way back when I was 16. We had a re-fueling stop in Rankin Inlet and then off to Winnipeg. That was in 1965. I would so love to experience a flight on that marvelous aircraft again.
I wouldn't say the Connie "lost the battle" to the jet aircraft. . .There was no "battle". . .Technology simply advanced and the jet age began. . .And I must say that, to me, the difference between the best of the propliners and the jets is similar to the difference between the cars of today and the classic cars of the 1950's and 60's. . .Sure, the cars of today are far more technologically advanced, but so many of them really do look almost the same. . .Whereas, the cars of the 50's and 60's each had a more distinctive style all their own. . .And I think that's also true of the classic propliners and the jets of today. . .Those old propliners each had a distinctive style that really set them apart from one another. . .The jets of today really do look more like each other than the propliners did. . .I know, I know. . .The similar shapes relate to the efficiency of the basic design, which is true of cars as well. . .But I miss that "style" distinction that made those old planes, and cars, more fun to me. . .Just my opinion!
I rode in a TWA Connie in 1951, combining it with an AA DC-6 to get from LAX-MDW-LGA; can't remember which leg was which! I was 15 (now 83) and was amazed at the luxury and speed, although it seemed to take a long time! (My few earlier trips had been in DC-3's for Mohawk airlines in the NE US. Thanks so much for posting this! After extensive airline travel as a businessman and as a 2,500-hour private pilot (but always in singles), these videos take me back to the amazement and thrill of flight and some of the skill I had back in those younger years. Missing from the video were the oil trays under those big radial engines when parked, and the ground crew with the big-and-kept-handy fire extinguishers at startup; your Connie must be pretty well maintained! Thanks again.
Great video! My first airplane ride was in a Chicago & Southern Airlines L-749(?) Connie in 1953. Quite an adventure for an 8 year old. A great memory from another life. Also had great trip from JAN to FLL and back in a MSANG C-121 circa 1965. IMO, one of most beautiful, graceful airliners ever built.
This brings back a few memories. June 6, 1954, Trans Canada Airlines (TCA), Montreal, via Shannon to London. I remember the noise and vibration the most. The noise was so loud that my ears rang for hours, after we landed. It was considered the ultimate flying machine in its day but thank goodness jets came in at the end of the 50s. Flight time was approx 18 hours. The return trip had us landing at Goose Bay to refuel before going on to Montreal. Nice video though! Thanks.
The days when flying was a joy, a nice part of the holiday or trip, nowadays its a pain to go through airports and pay lots of money to be crammed in a fuselage full of germs and no space to stretch your legs. love these old school, manual flying type planes with proper mechanical connections between the yoke and control surfaces. plus more staff with 4 flight crew in cockpit, its safer in one way.
When I was a teenager my family lived in Chicago on the South side and I remember seeing these aircraft flying in and out of Midway field. I think they are the most beautiful passenger plane ever made.
I used to see that exact plane often when she was known as 'Camarillo Connie'. It was sad to see her go, but it's great that she has a new home and is kept in the air.
In 1956 my mother and I flew from Sydney to Fiji on a Qantas SC to meet my father who was returning from a long business trip to the USA. It took nine hours. I was 6 and I had a long ride up in the cockpit. In those days it was very expensive to fly internationally and it was a great thrill. Qantas maintains their SC here in Sydney. I am pretty sure it does joyflights.
TWA Was still flying these beautiful birds in their fleet when I began working there. I had the opportunity for a couple of flights in the Super Connie and I will never forget those experiences.
ce super constellation et un vrai bijoux pour l'époque!!!!! avec ces 4 moteurs avec le bruitcaractéristique, lui donne toute sa beauté en vol!!!!!! c'est cela le vrai mot aviation!!!!!
Passenger on the USN Super Constellation Phoenix bound from Christchurch, New Zealand to the Antarctic in Nov 1969, Party No 13 bound for the Ice (my first flight ever at the young age of 20). Fabulous experience for a young Kiwi - cargo on one side, seats on the other all facing backwards, thick sweet black American coffee, a tall negro American Serviceman from the Harlem sitting next to me). Lots of learning about life! Its sister plane was the Pegusus. Still have that first photo. My interest rekindled when in a NZ Airforce documentary (2020), it was mentioned that the 2 new runways at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica are called Phoenix Field and Pegusus Field. Memories!
I flew on a TWA Constellation from London to Los Angeles direct in 1962. It was a long crowded flight in the days when booze flowed without restraint and smoking was allowed. When I landed, I smelled like a cheap London pub. It was exciting to see the Arctic from the air though. The only plane that felt more like I was bouncing along in the sky more than in the Constellation was a flight in a Viscount in 1959 over Africa-- Nairobi, Khartoum, Wadi Halfa, Bengazi, and London. Khartoum was 102 F. at 2AM, and the airport lounge was an oven. The orange soda was warm, and everyone tried to sit under a fan. At Wadi Halfa they took us from the end of the runway to the airport in a stake bed truck. Bengazi had a cobble stone clay brick apron and a very short runway. The pilot touched down about ten feet from the top end, and he did full throttle and flaps so much that we felt like we would fall out the front of the cabin. All this nostalgia is yours free for the reading by an old Anglo Wog from Kenya.
I have always wanted to fly in the flight deck, & I think this is as close as I will get. I fly to Europe often, & never comfortably I am afraid of flying. Its sad, because I always wanted to be a pilot, but the terror of flying put that dream to just that. A dream. Thanks for the ride, & its the cheapest one I ever had. Much Thanks .
As probably most comments that have been made, and will be made, this is a beautiful designed aircraft...one that I hope for decades to come, gets shown around the world for all people to see. I've never been in one, nor had an opportunity to get a ride to somewhere in one in my young days in the 1950's to some of the 1960's, but, my mother had a few way back when. I've got some airline literature of those planes she was on in vacations or work related meetings. My first, and only prop plane flight was on an Eastern Electra four engine. That was fun and way back on June 1, 1964, I think: from Indianapolis to Atlanta. I just love the sounds of those two & four engine prop airplanes.
Beautiful trip into “the way things used to be” 😁! I have become fascinated with Super Connies because they were slightly before my time - I was born in ‘63 and never got to fly anything but jets. Magnificent aircraft, and a true Labor of Love to keep it flying almost 70 years on ❤️!
I flew on one of these from San Francisco to the Phillipine Islands back in 1957 and then back again in 1958. It was a US navy plane and we had to sit facing the rear. WE made three stops on the way. The trip seemed like it took a week but I think it was more like two days total. Was a lot of fun for a 19 year old USAF enlisted kid to make.
I was a flight engineer on the C121 in the 60s. I loved flying in that airplane. The engine rebuilders quite working on the engines and it became harder and harder to find a source for rebuilt engines. That was one of the many factors. The USAF recalled all the ANG C121s to convert to radar picket planes in the late 60s. A couple were shot down by Russians
While a pilot in US Navy squadron VW-2 I was assigned the project to see how long we could keep a WV-2 airborne as a part of our new Primary Mission of developing search procedures to find the developing space capsules. I headed out on a simulated search and ultimately kept my "Willy Victor" airborne for 24 hours and 15 minutes. That is probably a Lockheed record.
I flew as a child between Santo Domingo and San Juan with Aerovías Quisqueyanas connies a couple of times,and then being a co pilot on the C-46 ,if for any reason our C-46 was down we used to catch a ride from San Juan back to Santo Domingo on Aerochago's Connie,great times back in the 80's !
RAW AVIATION PROFESSIONALS...THEY KNOW THAT AIRCRAFT AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FLIP A DAM SWITCH...THE FLIGHT ENGINEER CAN DRAW THE ELECTICAL SYSTEM FROM THE GENERATOR BUS THROUGH ANY BUS TIE AND DOWN TO THE BATTERY IN A DC SYSTEM. I WOULD 25 YEARS AGO ON THE 727....WHAT A WONDERFUL BLESSING
Back in 1965, I flew home (Navy Boot Camp) from San Diego to Houston, I was a passenger on one of these Constellations. I remember sitting in a Window seat near one of the Engines, and seeing the Blue Flame of the exhaust.
THANK YOU for the video . I really wish I could have been aboard that flight as it would have been my Second Historical Flight aboard a Super Connie . My Father was Lockheed's Insurance Broker , so Lockheed invited us for the Celebration and Inaugural Flight when they released the Super Connie for civilian transportation . My Father and I (a young child) were among the civilian passengers on that Inaugural Flight , my Mother had an infant to care for so she waited in the Terminal . We took-off from Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, California , USA and flew around for awhile and then returned to the Lockheed Terminal . Lockheed gave everyone who had been on the Inaugural Flight a Lapel Pin in the shape of a small Super Connie . I still have my Super Connie Lapel Pin .
The aesthetics of the Constellation and SUperConstellation are second to none. Now insofar the sound or should I say rumble of the engines coming off the stacks of the SuperG are simply music from heavens.
What I remember most about the Connie, was the night takeoffs and the sound of those 3350s, and the PRTs belching blue flames, while sitting in the studio compartment of 193rd TEW EC-121s.
When I was a little boy in 1960 my father made his first intercontinental flight on board a super constellation from Germany to New York. Years later I had my first intercontinental flight on another Lockheed highlight the L-1011 Tristar fom Rome to Colombo.
My first airline flight was in a Connie back in (I think) 1959, a business trip from St. Louis somewhere in Kentucky (can't remember where). We were in first class and I remember being served a meal placed on a pillow on our laps. Little did I realize that I had the privilege of flying on one of the last piston engine airline flights. The 707 soon took over the airline skies.
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