This is great to see.... Connie Coming to Oshkosh | EAA AirVenture The recently restored Lockheed C-121A Constellation Bataan, owned by Air Legends Foundation, will be making the trip to Oshkosh this year for EAA AirVenture 2023. In June, the Connie made its first post-restoration flight out of Chino Airport in California. Bataan’s appearance at AirVenture will mark the first time a Connie, either in its military or civilian airline configuration, has attended Oshkosh since the mid-2000s. Bataan was delivered to the U.S. Air Force in January 1949 to operate within the Military Air Transport Service. After being used during the Berlin Airlift to transport personnel and equipment, Bataan was converted into a VIP transport. During the Korean War, it was used as the personal transport of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who gave it its nickname. Retired in 1965, Bataan was pulled from the boneyard by NASA in support of the Apollo program before it was decommissioned in 1970. From 1970 to 1992, the airplane resided at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum before Ed Maloney of the Planes of Fame Air Museum secured it. From 1995 to 2016, Bataan resided at Planes of Fame’s auxiliary location at Valle Airport in Arizona. Air Legends Foundation of San Antonio, Texas, acquired the airplane in 2015, with it being flown to Chino, California, in 2016 for restoration work, which was performed by Fighter Rebuilders. Bataan is expected to arrive at AirVenture 2023 during the air show on Monday, July 24, and depart during the air show on Friday, July 28.
Let's hope this beautiful bird doesn't suffer the same fate : http://www.conniesurvivors.com/1-mats_connie_korea.htm
I was driving near Avra Valley Airport in 1993 - I didn't even know there was an airport there! - and I saw this Connie coming in low. I found the airport and looked around; I also saw some P-2 firebombers and the Red Baron team Stearmans.
Looks like a good year at Oshkosh this year. I bet the Connie and P47 razorback win something. The P47 will win best of show AirVenture Live | Air Show Live Stream | EAA AirVenture
I was at Osh Kosh in 1998, and there was a Connie (not sure the model) center stage in TWA markings. I think it was the Connie, an E-3, Concorde, and a C-17 in a circle. What a mix of technology.
There was some haze the last two days at Oshkosh, but it hasn’t really slowed much down. Today was even more crowded than Monday, and the campgrounds are full. They modified the air show today a little, but you wouldn’t have known it from what they put on. It remains a paradise for those who love aviation: beautiful aircraft and nice people.
Indeed there is. Captured here on video (starts at 1:10) For fans of Russian jets, there are also two MiG-17s that beat up the pattern when they arrived on Sunday
Oh yeah! (now feeling my age.............back in their day, I flew as a paying passenger on a Connie!)
Very nice video. The last time I saw a Connie flying was back in the 1980's at MIA. And it was a beat-up smoker S.A. cargo aircraft. This one looks factory fresh.
Sounded and looked like she was on landing approach to Chino(?) just few minutes ago (flew over my shop in Riverside, heading west, toward Chino ?) Heard & saw her heading east earlier last week.
