What some believe to be
the most beautiful airplane ever built returns to EAA AirVenture this
year for the first time since 2004. The Airline History Museum’s
"Star of America" Lockheed Super Constellation will be parked
throughout the week on AeroShell Square. Interior tours of the airplane
will be available during the week, hosted by its crew from the Airline
History Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Proceeds from that tour help
finance the continued maintenance and operation of the aircraft.
The restoration of the
"Star of America" began in 1986, when a group of Kansas
City-area aviation enthusiasts began searching for a Super Constellation
to obtain and refurbish. The group discovered one of the last
Constellations that came off Lockheed’s assembly line in 1958, but it
had been parked in an Arizona "boneyard" for nine years. After
a nine-week effort to make the airplane flyable, the group was able to
ferry the airplane to Kansas City to begin a full restoration.
The resurrection of
"Star of America" was aided greatly by a corps of retired
employees from TWA, the airline that flew Super Constellations
extensively. With talented specialists from every aspect of this
aircraft’s operations working tirelessly, the group needed only 18
months to complete the original restoration and begin nationwide stops
on the air show circuit. In the late 1990s, employees from TWA’s
Kansas City maintenance base donated a new paint job in the original TWA
colors.
Along with its
appearances on the air show circuit, the "Star of America" has
made numerous movie and television appearances over the past 15 years,
including the 2005 blockbuster film "The Aviator." It is one
of the few Constellations or Super Constellations still flying anywhere
in the world, and the only one flying that did not begin its life as a
military aircraft.
Super Constellation
