The airport now has a web site for this event at

www.classicairshow.co.uk

This is just the start there will be regular updates as more info becomes available.

Having visited the website for the airshow and booking tickets on line, I am more than curious to know the identity of the Lockheed Constellation shown as a flying participant of the show.

Dose anyone have any information?

Chris Waby

I belive that it may possibly be the Aviodome's N749NL which arrived in Europe toward the end of last year.

I very much hope N749NL can attend, but at the moment it is minus propellors, with Aviodome frantically searching for some, but here's hoping. For anyone in Europe, it's worth getting on one of those cruddy 737s and flying to the UK for the weekend.

For anyone who has not been to a Coventry show, the 1999 and 2000 shows were, from a propliner point of view, quite simply the best air shows I have ever been to in my life and I have little doubt 2003 will be the same.

I believe the Dutch are also missing one engine plus all of the propellers. If I recall correctly there is not Dutch crew qualified as yet to fly the Connie...and she still has not been completely painted in her original Royal Dutch livery. Now, having said all that...I do hope for a last minute blast of hyper activity from the Dutch to get all of this stuff done so the Connie can strut her stuff in front and above the airshow crowd.

Doug

The Dutch Connie does have a crew even if not all Dutch.The crew is a mixture of Dutch and British with possibly an American input. I do believe they have acquired an engine, so just short of the props, but that is a big problem, so keeping my fingers crossed

I have checked the calendars of The Constellation Group (MATS Connie), HARS (Australian Connie), and the Airline History Museum at Kansas City (our Connie), and none of them have Coventry listed in their calendars. Of these, I would have thought the Constellation Group most possible, but it's not on the list. Camarillo Connie has no crew right now, but the Swiss Group is talking about acquiring it, a possibility for Coventry? That pretty much leaves the Aviodome Connie as the only other possibility. And that will depend on engine, props, and crew. Anyone else know something I don't?

Herb Bain
AHM

Someone said they are or have been standing in line for tickets. That must mean the Coventry event isn't to far in the future. If a Connie is going to fly the show somebody in those Constellation groups better get on the stick and show signs of attending.

Sorry...misread the original message. That was ON-LINE for tickets. God it terrible to be old!!!

You need a vacation Vernon! Then you'd feel young again.

I'll be surprised to see a Connie at Coventry.
The Swiss group ( http://www.superconstellation.ch/En/index_En.html ) is actively trying to get N73544 over but there may not be enough time. N749NL is still grounded AFAIK waiting props. Dumb question - would L1049 props (ex-N105CF) fit ?

Brian
That is the Camarillo Connie. As far as props go, it's not a matter of if they're 749 or 1049 props, it's whether the engines, mounts, plumbing, wiring, wings, fuselage, and hydraulic tanks are set up for Curtiss electric props, which the Dutch 749 is set up for, or the Hamilton Standard hydraulic props. Hamiltons are solid aluminum props and fairly common becaused they were less problem prone. Curtiss electrics were hollow steel props, and very suseptible to cracking. To change a plane from one to the other is a mammoth undertaking. Pumps, plumbing, wiring, mounting, nose cones of engines, tanks, circuits, etc. all have to be exchanged and added. Not impossible, but definitely a last resort.
Herb Bain
AHM

Another great weekend for those on the Pacific Coast of the US or in Australia or NZ, to attend, is the annual "WarBirds Over Wanaka" weekend at Easter, in New Zealand.

For more info see

http://www.warbirdsoverwanaka.co.nz/article_2004.asp?id=about

Ref the Dutch Connie, main problem in acquiring the Curtiss electric props is that the Contellation Flying Group at Avra Valley, and Forrest Industries Flying Tankers up at Sproat Lake in British Columbia (yes, the Martin Mars uses the same propellers) hoovered up all the known spare propellers they could find a few years ago, as they knew they were difficult to find. I think that the Dutch will find it challenging to source props for their aircraft, unfortunately.

Andy

Sounds extremely doubtful that the Connie will actually make it to Coventry, but I understand from several old pals with whom I did my RAF time, a possibility which would very nicely make up for the missing Connie is the hoped-for flying appearance of Air Atlantique's Avro Shackleton!! Nothing certain as yet, but we're hearing that there's a chance.
I love to see and hear Connies as much as the next guy, and my(oil soaked!)time working on them will never be forgotten, but to hear again those 4 Griffons and 8 props(!)passing overhead at low altitude.......excuse me while I find a tissue! I think I'd be tempted to fly back to UK for that weekend if I knew the 'Shack' was a certainty! (I live in Bali).
Colin.

Colin, maybe you'll enjoy this:


Photo taken at last years "CAF Airsho" at Midland, TX

There is a farily large article about the US based Shackelton in the January issue of FlyPast and as I understand it there is a good chance it will make it to CVT.

See you all at CVT in May!!

Nicolai

Nicolai: wow, what a photo!

Hopefully see you at Coventry-we will be there on the Saturday.

I didn't know Air Atlantique's Shackleton was airworthy. I hope it is and that it can fly at the show, because the sight and the sound should be incredible-I probably have seen a Shackleton do a flypast before, but I can't recall it.

What a magnificent shot, Nicolai!! What memories it invokes, of long nights spent changing powerplants, of "hot" plug changes, of oil and filter changes(50-plus galls per engine)in hot desert winds in Libya, up to here in sand and black oil. What fun!! Funny thing though - it didn't seem so at the time!!

Whilst the last thing I want to be is controversial, I fail to see the comparasion between one of the most beautiful and charismatic airliners ever made i.e. Lockheed Constellation and what is only a development of a 2nd World War bomber [Shackleton]. I have fond memerories of the Shackleton having seen them fly on numerious occasions from RAF Waddington before the introduction of the AWACS but there is no way that the two aircraft compare.
I would and have traveled many many miles to see a Constellation but definately not a Shackleton, any way there is already one at Coventry, admittedly not a flying example.
I sincerely hope that somehow a Constellation makes an appearance at Coventry, if not I only hope that common sense prevails and the Conroy CL44 is allowed to make an appearance, if only on a flypast.

Whilst I would agree with Chris that the Shackleton is definitely not a propliner and not in the same league as the Connie (and like him, I would go a long way to see a Connie, but not a Shackleton), it was neverthless a very charismatic British heavy piston engined aircraft, with, very unusually, if not uniquely on a western aircraft (apart from the Fairey Gannet), contra-rotating props, and it was a remarkable survivor, remaining in front line service with the RAF until 1991?

So it would be very nice if a flying one could come to the show, but let's hope the Dutch Connie can make it too.

Apart from the Shackleton and Gannet? What about the Westland Wyvern, several(production)marks of Spitfire, some marks of Seafire, the Seafang/Spiteful, the Short Sturgeon.......any more?
I admit, the Shackleton's appeal would probably be more to those of us fortunate enough to have worked and flown on it, but I guess this also applies to the Constellation to a certain extent - many enthusiasts see her as - and she truly is - the most beautiful transport aircraft ever built, but for those of us again with fond(and not-so-fond!)memories of her care and maintenance she has other great attractions. May those entrusted with keeping the survivors flying live long and be fruitful!
Colin.

It will be a shame if the Connie doesn't make it to this years show. However they could always have a CL44 instead, I understand that the CL44-O, currently in the UK, has been turned down, due to lack of space. Just a thought.

Simon B.