The restaurant was made from the carcass of a Ports Of Call Denver CV 990 (a charter outfit) that had been stripped for parts and junked.
It was located at what was then known as Tri-County Airport, and there was a ramp outside where you could taxi up for a "fly in" dinner.
The airframe had been completely stripped, so the inside was fitted out as a long, skinny dining room, with the cockpit set up as a booth that would seat eight people. The kitchen was in the building underneath, along with a bar and lounge. Food would be sent up to the plane via a very finicky dumb waiter.
The restaurant was only around for a decade or so. It closed up in the late 80s, and the plane was scrapped in the mid 90s.
In Hungary we used to have something similar. The restaurant was called Elvis Park, the aircraft was an Ilyushin-18. It does not exist anymore, because a highway was built and the place went to bankrupcy. I think it looked cool, even with today's standards. You will find the link below, but Google Translate seems to fail to translate the page because of the cookie setting popup, so the rough translation:
ReplyDeleteAfter several years of negotiations, the IL-18, better known as Ilonka, belonging to the Malév fleet and once functioning as a restaurant and entertainment venue, will leave the country for good next week.
Nicknamed “Ilonka”, the aircraft with the registration number HA-MOI served in the MALÉV fleet between 1967 and 1989. Its last official flight ended at Ferihegy on January 25, 1989, at seven in the morning. The aircraft arrived in the capital from Algeria. Interestingly, Ilonka’s last pilot, Károly Gratzer, also retired after 40 years of service.
After that, it landed at the military airport in Pápa, and only months later was it transported by road, with a police escort. Its wings were dismantled and taken via highway 83 and Győr to the junction of highways 85 and 1 near Abda. During his adventurous journey overland, the road connecting Pápa with Győr had to be closed, causing a huge traffic jam at the border crossing, the system collapsed in several places due to power outages, and even trains were delayed.
The fuselage of the aircraft is being transported on Route 85. There were road closures and traffic restrictions in several places
After a short time, she arrived safely at the Elvis Park between Győr and Abda, where she was installed in the restaurant building, and this was her home for more than two decades. A restaurant was also created inside. At that time, she was in her heyday, her turnover was skyrocketing, both domestic and foreign tourists loved Ilonka, and she enjoyed immense popularity.
Its popularity began to decline rapidly after the M1 bypass section, which ran parallel to Highway 1 and was opened to traffic in 1997. The restaurant's traffic dropped to a minimum, languished for a while, and finally closed in 2000.
The plane experienced its second heyday in 2007, when it was converted into a nightclub. The plane's interior was painted reddish-orange to resemble a Latin-themed bar, and palm trees and wicker furniture completed the new design, but it was nowhere near as popular as it had been before. According to some sources, dance classes were even held on board.
In June 2008, as a last-ditch effort, an opening party was held. The attendees didn't know it at the time: It was also the plane's farewell party. After that, it stood idle for three years.
The plane was initially planned to be cut into pieces to make it easier to lift, but some aviation enthusiasts decided to do more damage to the building, considering it a rare specimen. So in 2011, it was lifted out of the building in one piece, but not taken far; it still awaits its fate next to its former “home”. Its tail section and right wing were cut off to fit more comfortably in its current location.
Currently, it is still wandering next to the former restaurant.
The former symbol of the Győr area will say goodbye to the city in a few hours: The fuselage of the aircraft will be transported to Slovakia on a special trailer from BauTrans on Monday, November 17, 2014, as part of an exchange program, where it will be restored and become part of an aviation history exhibition, but the plane will of course remain in Hungarian ownership. As part of the program, the Slovaks will participate in the restoration of the Tu-154 of the new Ferihegy visitor center.
This brings Ilonka's story of more than two decades to a definitive end...
Update:
Benedek Rábel: The IL-18 plane from Abda is being taken to Košice with a police escort. They stopped in Rajka for about half an hour because it is a holiday in Slovakia and there was a truck stop until 10 pm.
https://szellemvarosok.blog.hu/2014/11/16/tavozik_a_malev-flotta_il-18-asa_abdarol
I am so sorry! This comment went to the spam folder, that I only look through every couple of months to rescue the few obviously real comments.. there are too many spam comments every day that go straight to the spam folder for me to feel like looking more than one every couple of months... so it took over a month and a half to get this out of the Spam and into Published!
Deletethank you for the extensive translation!
DeleteOh, never mind! I glad you like it!
ReplyDelete