Connie - The Lockheed Constellation

Here are a few pictures of the Lockheed Constellation. It is a lovely, graceful aircraft, now retired.

She is legend.

She is the Bettie Page of aircraft.

Few other aircraft can match her style and beauty.

--Detail--

She set a standard hard to beat. The Constellation retired as a transcontinental aircraft at the head of her game, jumbo jet service was looming.

She stayed active as a shuttle and cargo transport for many years and then retired completely.

Of the 856 originally built, only about 50 have escaped the scrap yard. There are a scattered few left on display.

--Detail--

The thing to marvel at in this photograph is the detail. It is a 3X3 inch contact print made at a consumer photo shop in December 1961. The camera was probably one of the many square format reflex cameras of the day. They were popular as well as practical. The camera was held steady with both hands and braced against the body when tripping the shutter. This produced very little camera vibration while taking a picture.

In the blow up below you can see the banner Trans World Airlines on the planes as well as people waiting to board.

Remember too that this is a scan from a print, not from the original negative.

Amazing detail for a small camera don’t you think?

From wawstl on FLickr:
I'm sure this is the Pittsburgh, PA, Terminal and TWA's two gates they were using when I first started flying. Later they moved to some gates at the west end of the terminal. These two were in the center. There was a motion picture theater in that second level, and with no security, city bus's could drive through that lower level and drop you off right at the gate. The two Connie's are Model 749 or 749A's. The 1049 had square windows.

--Detail--

Here is a more modern found-photograph of a Connie on display somewhere.

Perhaps you have seen this one.

Do you know where it is?

I missed this one at first.

Here is a Super Constellation radar equipped as an EC-121 for operations in Southeast Asia. It was a long time ago.

fulvuesays: Looks like a Lockheed Super Constellation AWACS.
See one in flight here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWPyH97eOoI

Update: Found the one just below. It might be the same plane.

This photographer twice just missed getting the registration number of this Constellation.
From Flickr member wawstl:
I can just read the number 7 on the rudder just above the "N" number, which starts with a 9. That would make this a Model 749. The TWA 749A's number started with an 8. This looks like the mid 50's. I started flying with TWA in 1964 and got to fly these Connie's for a year. I can't read the number well enough to know if this was one of them.

Update 19 Jan 2013:
Alert spotter gccj5150 on Flicker found the aircraft number. Here is what was reported:
Look under the wing:
Lockheed 749 Constellation:
1. TWA, N91211, FN 711, ‘Star of Arizona’, later ‘Star of the Suez’ - 6/10/48
2. WFU and stored, Kansas City, MO - 12/30/66
3. Broken up - 7/68

--Detail--

--Detail--

The Flying Dutchman
From Peter: (See Comment below)
"The Flying Dutchman Connie is the KLM 749A PH-LDN "Vlaardingen" (a city near Rotterdam). The aircraft with that registration was in KLM service from Nov. 1956 until Jun. 24, 1963."
Thanks Peter!

Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation N9723C, the "Red Baron
Scrapped at Burbank, California, July 1971. This one had squared windows.

From wawstl on Flickr:
Left side, in the background is the nose of a WW II A-26, later changed to B-26, with a bomber nose. In front of it are two planes from the movie "Tora Tora Tora" One a BT-13 rebuilt to look like a Japanese Val Dive bomber, the other an AT-6, built to look like a Japanese Zero.

Can't get enough?
For more pictures of the Lockheed Constellation
go HERE.

Here is a special treat. LOST GALLERY found a collection of sixteen Lockheed Constellation photographs in an album called Vintage Aviation assembled by Raymondx1 a Flickr member.

A crowd of people watching a Trans World Airlines Constellation from a busy café on Frankfurt Airport's public observation deck. On the left of the picture a waiter in a white jacket is taking orders at a table. The following words in German are handwritten on reverse: "Auf dem Flughafen Rhein-Main in Frankfurt/Main – 1956" (At Rhein-Main airport in Frankfurt – 1956). A second four-engined propeller plane can be seen in the distance.

Country of origin: Germany

A crowd of spectators watching an Air France Super Constellation taxiing on the tarmac of a German airport. The word "1962" is handwritten on reverse.

Country of origin: Germany

An Aero-Transport Lockheed Constellation at London's Gatwick airport in the early sixties. Aero-Transport was a short-lived Austrian carrier operating charter services to holiday destinations mostly in the Mediterranean.

Country of origin: UK

A Capitol Airways Super Constellation being serviced on the tarmac of London's Gatwick airport. I purchased this vintage photographic print from an English online vendor. I was pleasantly surprised to find details on the aircraft's registration, colour scheme, and the date the photo was taken, handwritten on reverse:

Lockheed 1049G Super Constellation, Capitol Airways N4903C, Silver white, Broad Red stripe/Blue stripe along fuselage, Red on fins.
Gatwick 2. 7. 60.

Country of origin: UK

An American Flyers Airline Super Constellation on the tarmac of an exotic airport in early morning or late afternoon sunshine. Two palm trees are visible in the background.

Country of origin: unknown

A Royal Air Maroc Constellation on the tarmac of an exotic airport in a desert landscape, possibly Casablanca.

Country of origin: unknown

An Iberia Lockheed Super Constellation taxiing in front of the terminal building of London's Gatwick airport. Another four-engine propeller plane, a British European Airways Vickers Viscount, can be seen in the foreground. This photograph was probably taken sometime in the early sixties.

Country of origin: UK

A Seaboard & Western Airlines Super Constellation on the tarmac of London's Gatwick airport on a rainy day in the late fifties.

Country of origin: UK

Passengers disembarking a Royal Dutch Airlines plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. It's a Lockheed Super Constellation with the distinctive triple tail. The special bus – designed to bring passengers to the arrival hall – was a novelty in 1956.

Country of origin: The Netherlands

Qantas Super Constellation "Southern Wave" being serviced on the tarmac of London's Gatwick airport. Note the additional fuel tank mounted on the tip of the aircraft's wing.

Country of origin: UK

Passengers disembarking a Lufthansa Super Constellation at Hamburg's Fuhlsbüttel airport in the fifties.

Country of origin: Germany

A Pakistan International Airlines Constellation at a European airport in the 1950s. With the last passengers descending the gangway and groups of people chatting on the tarmac, it looks as if the aircraft has just arrived. The location is probably a German airport, as a Mercedes-Benz saloon and a VW Microbus (in Lufthansa colours) can be perceived.

Country of origin: unknown

A Trans World Airlines Constellation refueling at an airport in the 1950s. The people on the gangway seem to be members of the flying crew – possibly the captain, a stewardess, and the purser.

Country of origin: USA

An Air France Constellation taxiing on the tarmac of an airport under bleak skies – has it just landed, or is it about to take off? Five members of the ground crew and a baggage carrier train can also be seen in the picture. This minute print (measuring only 35 x 70 mm) was probably taken sometime in the fifties.

Country of origin: unknown

This aircraft – F-BAZX – was to crash on December 24th 1958 on the approach to Vienna's Schwechat airport. Miraculously, all 28 passengers and six crew members survived.

While a group of – mostly female – passengers are waiting to embark a Trans World Airlines Constellation, the lady in the light-coloured coat in the foreground is apparently taking a photo of the scene. Note the fox fur neck-piece worn by the lady in the blue coat near the gangway across her shoulder. In the background the distinctive triple tail of a second Connie – in KLM colours – can be perceived. The date "Nov. 1954" is handwritten at the bottom of the print.

Country of origin: USA

A Trans World Airlines Constellation refueling at Zurich Kloten airport in the mid-fifties. Four members of the ground crew are standing in a circle underneath the starboard outer engine, another fellow can be seen working on the plane's wing. In the background a second aircraft has just taken off. This wonderful colour photograph was part of a family album I discovered at a flea market in Stuttgart.

Country of origin: Germany

There are now more than 8,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.

The most popular photographs
An album of the
most requested photographs
in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half
You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you!
This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

BACK TO
THE MAIN INDEX PAGE
Or try out the NEW
BACK PAGE INDEX

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.
And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS
It is always a mystery to us how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story, What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"