Part of Lufthansa’s efforts to restore the Lockheed Constellation Starliners AUBURN — Firefighters responding to the Lufthansa hangar at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport on Monday morning walked into a wall of foam over their heads after a malfunction in the fire suppression system filled the building with foam and briefly trapped four people inside. “Apparently, they […]
Lockheed L-1649A Starliner
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Super Star coming together in Auburn
When Lufthansa Technik officials heard about the impending sale of three of the remaining four Lockheed Super Star Constellation aircraft in the world in 2007, a historic vision came together: Cobble together parts of all three aging Constellations in order to get one back into the air for the first time in decades. Lufthansa Technik […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn mulls taking over Lufthansa hangar
AUBURN — Operations at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport could save about $49,000 per year by taking over the lease for the hangar housing Lufthansa Technion’s Constellation project, councilors were told Monday. City Councilors were briefed on a plan to purchase the hangar from Nobility, LLC, which would pay off the contract, which has 14 years […]
Posted inConnections
Museum offers second chance to see plane project
LEWISTON — Museum L-A is offering a second chance to see the Lockheed “Super Star” reconstruction project at the Auburn-Lewiston Airport with behind-the-scenes tours on Saturday, Nov. 12. Participants will sign up for a tour that leaves the museum at 9:30 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. Available spaces are limited due to a waiting list from […]
Posted inbPlus
Restoring the Super Constellations
One of the last missions of the Lockheed L-1649A Starliner, which now sits stripped bare in a hangar at the Auburn-Lewiston Airport, was to transport cattle. Its final flight, in the early 1980s, was its arrival in Auburn from Florida. Only 44 Starliners were built, between 1956 and 1958, and were the cream of the […]
Posted inOur View, sj-web
On into the starry past of air travel
In their heyday, Lockheed Martin Super Constellation “Starliners” operated by Lufthansa could shuttle 30 people on the world’s longest airplane ride: 23 hours and 19 minutes, from London to San Francisco. Privileged passengers lounged in luxury aboard these “Super Stars,” and could cloister behind curtained beds while enjoying the latest in-flight entertainment: recorded music, played […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, sj-web
Big effort for prized planes
AUBURN – One of those antique planes that sat beside the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport for 20 years is a piece of German history. The particular plane, known simply as “N974R,” once served as West Germany’s equivalent to America’s Air Force One. So it’s little wonder that a foundation funded by Germany’s Lufthansa airline – “Lufthansa […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, sj-web
German company has plan to save ‘Connies’
AUBURN – At least one of the vintage Lockheed Constellation Starliners – 50-year-old planes parked outside the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport for more than two decades – may fly again. And it could lift the local airport with it. The airport has reached a tentative deal with a subsidiary of the airline Lufthansa to build a […]