On March 21st 2016 Lockheed Constellation named “Columbine” by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower departed Marana Regional Airport in Southern Arizona. The plane was beginning a ferry flight to Bridgwater Virginia for a full restoration.
The Lockheed Constellation (“Connie”) is a propeller-driven, four-engine airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its pressurized cabin enabled commercial passengers to fly well above most bad weather for the first time, thus significantly improving the general safety and ease of air travel.
Several different models of the Constellation series were produced, although they all featured the distinctive triple-tail and dolphin-shaped fuselage. Most were powered by four 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclones. A total of 856 were produced between 1943 and 1958 at Lockheed’s plant in Burbank, California, and used as both a civil airliner and as a military and civilian cargo transport. Among their famous uses was during the Berlin and the Biafran airlifts.
Three served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of which is a feature at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Sources: YouTube; Wikipedia