Monday, March 07, 2022

Constellations must have made great restaurants! Here's one in Malta, and one in Pennsylvania




Initially a commercial aircraft, the plane was impounded on 16th February, 1968 at the Malta International Airport for operating under a false registration number and was left abandoned for four years. On 6th November 1972 it was purchased by a local company, Salvatore Bezzina & Sons, for the sum of Lm3,000. It was towed to Kirkop a couple of months later and once ownership issues were settled, the plane was converted into a bar, and ran as a business for 13 years

 

Jim Flannery was a World War II pilot whose family owned a restaurant on Route 1 in Penndel. He was a shrewd publicist. The restaurant burned in 1957

In the Summer of 1967, Flannery, ever the showman, purchased an authentic Lockheed Super G Constellation airplane known as the “Geneva Trader” from Capitol Airways. It had previously been owned by Cubana Airlines

The large aircraft was brought to its current location in 1968. The wings and tail were dismantled, and it was trucked through Delaware, up Route 295 and over the Walt Whitman bridge. The convoy, with an attending media sideshow, the moved up Broad Street, around City Hall, and onto Route 1, encircled by the Philadelphia Police Force


When the plane was set atop pylons in Penndel, owner Jim Flannery had them removed to give the illusion that the plane was in flight.


The 1954 Lockheed Super G Constellation, known as the Penndel Airplane, in pieces during its 1997-2000 restoration at The Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The museum acquired the plane because the avionics in its cockpit are original,

https://cardboardamerica.org/2016/11/17/jim-flannerys-constellation-lounge-restaurant-penndel-pennsylvania/


In Opa Locka FL a Lockheed Constellation remained parked on an empty lot for years, abandoned by the businessmen who had hoped to make it into a restaurant.


And one had a terrible success rate, but for a brief time was a restaurant in Canada


After a career flying passenger and later cargo with World Wide Airways, the aircraft retired from flying in 1965. It sat in derelict condition for many years in different locations in Quebec and Ontario, Canada. It was partially restored and made into a museum during this period. Later, it was converted into a hotel cocktail lounge and lunch delicatessen at the Toronto airport during 1996-2002. The Museum of Flight eventually acquired the aircraft in 2005. 

Following extensive restoration to its original appearance in TCA colors in Rome, New York, it was trucked to the Museum's main campus in Seattle in 2009.

5 comments:

  1. There used to be one inToronto too

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    1. I'll see if I can find anything about it online. Was it also a Constellation?

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    2. found it! Thanks!

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    3. Yes! That’s the one!

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  2. Good to see it was restored and not demolished

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