Finishing on a British theme!
Avro York G-ANTK being restored at Duxford, April 1989
Same date and location, Airspeed Ambassador gets a repaint. I think this one was a sole survivor even then…pity, it’s a terrific-looking design
Same time and place again, HP Hermes fuselage, again a unique survivor
Same visit, different museum…RAFM’s oft-lamented lost gate guard Blackburn Beverley, XH124
And finally we have one of the few extant relics of the flying-boat era, Short Solent NJ203, owned (at least at that time) by the Grant brothers of Oakland, California, and on display at a museum there
S.
Closeup of the massive pusher props on the XC-99 in Texas
XC-99 cockpit (such as it still was by 1992)
XC-99 upper cargo bay
tbc
Never can have too many MATS Connie shots; here’s N494TW taxiing at Elmira NY airshow toward the end of her flying career
And another shot of her in the air…such a majestic sight (and sound)…
Cockpit of L1049 CF-RNR during her time as a bar next to Toronto airport
And the cabin. This Connie was a really nice display piece; Seattle did well to obtain her
tbc
ConifAir DC-6, St-Jean, Quebec, 1983
And another
And a third
And ConifAir’s other C-121A/L749, C-GXKR, which iirc eventually made its way to Holland?
tbc
These three date to the early 80s…
Presidential propliner #1…Roosevelt’s C-54 “Sacred Cow” in storage at Dayton
Presidential propliner #2…Truman’s VC-118 “Independence”, also at Dayton
Presidential propliner #3…Eisenhower’s VC-121C “Columbine III”, Dayton again
tbc
Millard’s C-GDWZ parked at Toronto after the company quit flying
Ex-Millard C-54 of Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation on show at the 1996 Hamilton airshow. (Incidentally, HIAS may be revived in 2012 as part of CWH’s 40th anniversary celebrations. The last year for HIAS as a full airshow was 2001.)
Another immaculate USAF-schemed C-54 at one of the three Batavia NY Wings of Eagles events. Never saw this one anywhere else!
tbc
Millardair C-54 G-GQIA sits it out at Mt.Hope soon after the nose gear collapsed during circuits-and-bumps there in spring 1985
C-GQIB at Toronto circa ’85 when Millardair was still operating
C-GQIC taxis in on two engines, same day as the shot of QIB
tbc
Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s Martin 404 visits Elmira NY for one of the last few Wings of Eagles events there (circa 1999)
ConifAir C-54 at St-Jean, Quebec, 1983
And another
tbc
Splendid Boeing C-97 N117GA at Hondo, Texas, 1992; now the Berlin Airlift group’s “Deliverance”
And to conclude with the biggest of the big, Convair XC-99 (double-deck cargo B-36 variant) in 1992 at its longterm display location near Kelly AFB; this, or at least most of it, is now at NMUSAF Dayton OH
All for now; over to other propliner/skytruck fans…
S.
Save-A-Connie Inc’s L1049H N6937C visits London ON airshow 1990
And in the air at Toronto ca.1991
One of Maurice Roundy’s pair of L1649A Starliners at Auburn, Maine, in the 90s
The other Starliner
tbc
S.
Timeline of L1049G/H CF-RNR. At Musee des Retrouvailles in Quebec ca.1992
…and at Toronto’s Regal Constellation (how apt) Hotel…
…then adjacent to the GA/charter area of Pearson airport as the Super Connie bar and sandwich shop. CF-RNR is now at the Museum of Flight in Seattle WA.
tbc
S.
Lockheed C-121A/L749 Constellation C-GXKO of ConifAir, budworm sprayer, seen at St-Jean, Quebec, in 1983
…same aircraft a few years later as Vern Raburn’s now-much-missed N494TW, the famous MATS Connie. Seen on the turf at Geneseo NY, 1993
And N494TW in flight. Very sad that she will never be seen airborne again
tbc
S.
1995, at the tiny Muirkirk airfield in southwestern Ontario. Contract Air Cargo of Pontiac MI flew C-54 N4989K in for the Spence Vintage Airworks airshow.
Same aircraft in the air at Muirkirk
And the last extant Canadair DC-4M North Star, RCAF 17515, stored in the open at Rockcliffe; this is now under longterm restoration inside the Canadian Air and Space Museum’s new storage hangar
tbc
S.
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