Last Flying Connie Doesn't Fly Now

Engine Blow Out May Be Too Expensive To Fix

One of the last flying Lockheed Constellations -- if not the last -- may be mothballed after a major engine blow out in Kansas City last month.

Painstakingly restored at the Airline History Museum, the "Connie" was scheduled to appear at air shows in Rockford, IL and St. Louis, MO. But the July 20th ramp incident changed all that.

Museum President Foe Geldersma told the Kansas City Star the plane's Number Two engine failed during a routine maintenance check on the ground. oil and gallons of burning fuel spewed from three failed cylinders. Some of the burning fuel was sprayed onto the skin of the aircraft, disfiguring it.

"It was a black, black day," he told the paper.

Maintenance crews had just adjusted the pitch on one of the props and pulled the Connie out of its hangar for a run-up. "We switched the engines on and they started fine, no problem," Geldersma, who was in the cockpit, said. "We waited for them to warm up, and then we ran them up to do the first check at 1,700 rpm, and that checked out okay. Then we took the two outboard engines up to a higher power setting, and they checked okay."

But when he ran up Number Two, the engine gushed oil and flaming fuel. Geldersma said he got a fire warning light in the cockpit. He frantically shut everything down, then ran out onto the ramp and doused the engine with a fire extinguisher.

It was also an expensive day. Museum executives figure it'll take $120,000 to repair the Wright R3350 and the Connie's exterior after the blow-out. That kind of lay-out would deplete the museum's reserves, Geldersma said.

"If this plane doesn't fly again, we're out of business," museum spokesman Cliff Hall told the Star.

What's left to do but raise the money? Hall said the museum is now contemplating fundraisers, as well as the possibility of finding a backer for the Connie.