Getting a 70-year-old Lockheed C-121 Constellation ready to fly cross-country isn't easy. Besides making sure the large airframe is structurally sound, you've got to get four enormous 18-cylinder, 2,500-horsepower radial engines running reliably. Karl Stolzfus had plenty of motivation to see this project through, though. In doing so, he'd be saving and preserving history: the first Air Force One.

"The ol' girl was up and getting it done!"

First Lady Maimie Eisenhower named the airplane "Columbine II" after the official state flower of Colorado, her adopted home state. Her husband, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was traveling in Columbine II in 1953 when air traffic controllers became confused. An Eastern Airlines commercial flight (8610) had the same call sign as the President's (Air Force 8610) and the two aircraft accidentally entered the same airspace. The potentially dangerous situation spurred creation of the unique call sign "Air Force One" for Columbine II, and the name stuck for all subsequent presidential planes.

Columbine II in the 1950s

Columbine II was built as a VC-121A transport for the Air Force in 1948 but converted to VIP configuration for Eisenhower and re-designated VC-121E. It served Ike from late 1952 through 1954 when it was replaced by another VC-121E, this one called "Columbine III." (It currently resides at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, OH). Columbine II remained as a "spare" Air Force One into 1955, when it was transferred to Pan American airlines, serving on special assignment to the Government of Thailand as the "Clipper Fortuna." The aircraft later returned to Air Force transport duties until its retirement in 1968.

Columbine II remains the only former Air Force One ever sold to a private buyer. In 1970, a firm that intended to convert the plane into an agricultural sprayer bought it, but wound up using Columbine II only as a source of spare parts. It was a derelict by the early 1980s but was restored using parts from another VC-121 in 1989-90. The first AF1 went on to tour the air show circuit in the early 1990s. When its owner lost interest, it was put up for sale in 1998. Nobody wanted Eisenhower's ride at the time and it was stored in Santa Fe, NM, before being flown to Avra Valley Airport near Tucson in 2003. That was the last time it flew, until last week.

Karl Stolzfus is the owner of Dynamic Aviation, a Virginia-based contractor that provides the federal government and other clients with aircraft and crews for tasks from surveillance to data acquisition. Rather than let Columbine II languish, Stolzfus went see the airplane for himself in 2014 and determined to buy it. Starting in March of 2015, a team of engineers from Dynamic, aided by volunteers from Texas-based Mid America Flight Museum, traveled to Avra Valley to return Columbine II to airworthiness. Brian Miklos, who led Dynamic's team, says the Constellation was in reasonably good shape, considering its history, but needed work.

"The airframe and the hard parts of the airplane were great condition but all the soft components, hoses and seals, were brittle from the desert environment. We had to replace all of that. We didn't do that much engine work, we just made sure the top-ends were well lubricated and replaced engine accessories."

Columbine II Ramon C. Purcell

Columbine's number four engine wasn't airworthy anymore, so Miklos borrowed a 3350 from yet another Lockheed Constellation which had recently flown and installed it on the airplane. The effort took a full year from March 2015 with the team alternating between three weeks in Arizona and two weeks at home in Virginia. "It was an intense effort," Miklos says.

Finally, the Dynamic crew took off in Columbine II on March 21 for the first leg of the cross country trip, to Mount Pleasant, TX and resumed the trip to Bridgewater, VA the following morning. The vintage Constellation logged about nine hours flight time and performed admirably. "At one point we had 234 mph across the ground. The ol' girl was up and getting it done!" Miklos says.

"The plan is to restore to just as it was when President Eisenhower was using it."

Karl Stolzfus plans to restore Columbine II back to its Air Force One configuration and return it to the air show scene. Fortunately, a significant part of its interior is still intact. Miklos says Dynamic has obtained a similar galley from another Constellation and has detailed information on how the aircraft looked in presidential service.

"The plan is to restore to just as it was when President Eisenhower was using it. We have incredible drawings and documentation to support that right down to color codes and manufacturer's original materials."

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