Historical Aircraft 005
This last flying Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation (Connie) VH-EAG is preserved at HARS museum in Wollongong NSW Australia. It is now the only flying L-1049 Super Constellation in the world. Until recently, the other was the Breitling Super Constellation in Switzerland, which was dismantled in 2019.
Below is from the HARS website.
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History of Type
The Constellation was designed in 1939 by Lockheed Aircraft Company as a high speed, transcontinental passenger aircraft for Howard Hughes’ TWA (Trans World Airlines). The first aircraft flew in 1943, but WW11 meant all aircraft production was used by the US Army Air Force for transport purposes. There were a number of variants and a total of 856 were built.
One variant was the Super Constellation which first flew in 1951. A total of 579 were built of which QANTAS took 16.
TWA did not receive its first passenger Constellation aircraft until 1945. The aircraft was a world beater. It was very fast with a maximum speed of ~600km/h. A pressurised cabin meant it could fly above the weather (~7,500m or ~25,000ft) making it a comfortable aircraft to fly in. First class passengers were at the back of the aircraft (away from the engines) and they could carry ~65 to ~90 passengers. The Connie was very popular with many airlines after WWII including QANTAS on the famous Kangaroo Route to London as well as pioneering their “Round-the-World” service, the first such trans global service in world airline history.
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