Oshkosh 2023. MacArthur Lockheed C-121A Constellation "Bataan"
Aircraft Owner: Air Legends Foundation
Guests: Rod Lewis, Stew Dawson, and Steve Hinton, Sr.

In 1948, the U.S. Air Force ordered ten Lockheed Model L-749 aircraft, the graceful Constellation airliner. They were delivered in 1948 and 1949 to Westover Air Force Base, and the Atlantic Division of the Military Air Transport Command – MATS, for short. Their Air Force designation was C-121A.
One of the first major international crises of the Cold War began on June 24th, 1948, when the Soviets closed all road, rail, and canal access to the parts of Berlin, Germany that were controlled by the Western allies. The Berlin Blockade left the people of West Berlin without their normal supplies of food, fuel, medicines, and other necessities. In response, the Western allies organized the Berlin Airlift. When the Airlift ended, the Connies were converted from cargo planes to high-speed V-I-P transports for the U.S. Air Force. In 1950, during the Korean War, Connie number 613 became the flying command post of General Douglas MacArthur, who was at the time Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Korea. MacArthur named his Constellation “Bataan,” after the Philippine peninsula known for the infamous Bataan Death March of 1942, when 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were brutally force-marched more than 60 miles to captivity in POW camps.

In Korea, General MacArthur made 17 flights over the battlefields in his Connie. And she carried him to Wake Island for a meeting with U.S. President Harry Truman. On April 16, 1951, a fateful day for MacArthur, the Connie Bataan carried the general from Korea to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where President Truman relieved him of his command. MacArthur then flew home to San Francisco, his last flight in the Connie.

All C-121s, including Bataan, were removed from Air Force rolls in 1966 and sent to the bone yard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. Several were stripped of military gear and sold to civilian operators in Canada for use as firebombers and bug sprayers. Three Connies, including number 613, Bataan, were assigned to NASA for use during the Apollo Space program. When the Apollo Space Program ended, NASA 422 was acquired by the Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker in Alabama and put on public display out in the open, and there she sat for twenty years. Two decades of heat, humidity, and southern thunderstorms were not kind to the old warrior, and the expense of maintaining her was beyond the museum’s means. In 1993 Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California offered to take possession of her.

Planes of Fame traded a helicopter for the Connie, made her airworthy with help from Lockheed, repainted her in General MacArthur’s colors, and took her on the air show circuit. But flying her was costly and after one year on the circuit, Bataan was grounded once again, perhaps permanently.
Enter Rod Lewis, a well-known aircraft collector, and owner of Lewis Air Legends and the Air Legends Foundation. Lewis purchased Bataan in 2015 and hired Steve Hinton’s Fighter Rebuilders company to undertake Bataan’s complete restoration. Finding parts wasn’t easy and few people knew anything about the 1950s-era airliner. Making Bataan flyable again was, said Hinton, like restoring 10 or 15 Mustangs. But despite the difficulties, Bataan once again took to the air on June 20 of this year, just in time for the trip to Oshkosh. She proudly wears the colors of General MacArthur’s transport and will soon be given an all-new historically correct interior.

General characteristics

Crew: 5 flight crew, varying cabin crew
Capacity: typically 62–95 passengers (109 in high-density configuration) / 18,300 lb (8,301 kg) payload
Length: 116 ft 2 in (35.41 m)
Wingspan: 126 ft 2 in (38.46 m)
Height: 24 ft 9 in (7.54 m)
Wing area: 1,654 sq ft (153.7 m2)
Aspect ratio: 9.17
Airfoil: root: NACA 23018; tip: NACA 4412
Empty weight: 79,700 lb (36,151 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 137,500 lb (62,369 kg)
Zero-lift drag coefficient: CD,0 = 0.0211
Drag area: 34.82 sq ft (3.235 m2)
Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-3350-DA3 Duplex-Cyclone 18-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,250 hp (2,420 kW) each
Propellers: 3-bladed constant-speed propellers
Performance

Maximum speed: 377 mph (607 km/h, 328 kn)
Cruise speed: 340 mph (550 km/h, 300 kn) at 22,600 ft (6,888 m)
Stall speed: 100 mph (160 km/h, 87 kn)
Range: 5,400 mi (8,700 km, 4,700 nmi)
Service ceiling: 24,000 ft (7,300 m)
Rate of climb: 1,620 ft/min (8.2 m/s)
Lift-to-drag: 16
Wing loading: 87.7 lb/sq ft (428 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.094 hp/lb (0.155 kW/kg)

#aircraft #constellation #oshkosh

свернуть