Super Constellation's restoration offers step back into Australia's luxury aviation past

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Aircraft enthusiasts can now walk through a glamorous piece of Australian aviation history, with a 1940s Lockheed Super Constellation restored to its former glory in outback Queensland.

Key points: The 1940s Lockheed Super Constellation, or 'Connie', transformed global air travel

In 1948 a first-class ticket was 325 pounds, which is $20,000 in today's money

Volunteers spent more than 945 hours restoring the cockpit and cabin of the Connie retrieved from a Manilla aircraft graveyard

Born in an era when air travel was a glamorous affair, the 'Connie', as it was affectionately known, revolutionised Australian air travel.

Renowned for its dolphin shape and unique three-point tail, the 'Connie' was also described as "whisper quiet".

Nicole Kutter from Longreach's Qantas Founders Museum said the aircraft changed the way people travelled around the world.

"The Super Constellation was the first pressurised aircraft for Qantas, and it was also the first aircraft to have a female cabin crew," she said.

The Connie heralded the birth of the Kangaroo route between London and Sydney in 1947, making Qantas the first round-the-world airline.

From rusty wreck to former glory

The dilapidated fuselage of this plane lay in a Manila aircraft graveyard in the Philippines for 25 years before being purchased by the museum five years ago.

Not originally a Qantas aircraft this particular constellation has its own unique history.

"This plane was actually built for the United States Navy in the 1950s," Ms Kuttner said.

"It's the closest we could get to the Super Constellation [the Qantas once flew], because they don't exist anymore."

Qantas Museum curator, Tom Harwood, said the restoration was a huge project.

"Looking at it, at first when it was all lined with fibreglass, and hanging wires and dirt and dust, you'd think, 'There is no way in the world we are going to be able to do anything with this!'," he said.

"The flight deck was a total shemozzle."

Mr Harwood said there were bits torn out of the plane and instruments had been stolen over the years.

"We had an instrument maker and another instrument technician spend their time pulling everything out and rebuilding every instrument," he said.

"They did a fantastic job, they put it all back together — [it's] probably looking better than it was when it was new."

The fuselage restoration took seven months with exhibition designers spending a week installing the interactive, interpretive multimedia display.

The display is a timeline that describes some of the routes the aircraft travelled during its service, and explains the significance and history of the Super Constellation from 1947 to 1963.

Re-designing historic luxury

The X Squared Design creative director, Jisuk Han, said the interactive display included a special narrative about the plane's unique history.

Her team tried to recreate the cabin as close to how it looked originally.

"We looked at existing photographs to be able to pull together a simplified recreation of how the plane was inside," Ms Jisuk said.

"We wanted people to experience the scale of the plane.

"It was a luxury airliner, like a silver service. This was an amazing thing that we don't get anymore."

First class in romantic era

The Qantas trans-Pacific air service began in 1954 and by 1958 was operating the first round-the-world air services in both hemispheres.

But a trip in the Connie was not for the working class.

In 1948, a one-way, first-class ticket would set you back 325 pounds — or $20,000 in today's money.

"It was for the privileged [and] really expensive, like a first-class experience," Ms Kuttner said.

"It was very glamorous — what you would imagine for a romantic era of flying."

The Connie was a piece of Australia's aviation history, preserved in time for everyone to appreciate.

The Super Constellation display will be officially opened to the public at the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach in April 2020.

Topics: air-transport, history, library-museum-and-gallery, regional, longreach-4730