FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Historic Connie VC-121 Bataan Aircraft Headlines at Tribute to Aviation, September 13-14
Montrose, Colo – Montrose Regional Airport invites aviation enthusiasts, families, and community members to mark their calendars for September 13–14, as the Tribute to Aviation returns with one of its most impressive aircraft lineups to date.
This year’s event will feature a special appearance by the VC-121A “Bataan”, also known as the legendary “Connie”. For the first time in the event’s history, this iconic aircraft will be on public display at Tribute, offering visitors a rare opportunity to experience a significant piece of aviation history up close.
The Tribute to Aviation is a free, family-friendly celebration held at Montrose Regional Airport, showcasing both historic and modern aircraft, flight demonstrations, and interactive exhibits.
For event information and a list of aircraft in attendance, visit www.tributetoaviation.com.
History of the VC-121A “Bataan”
In 1948, the U.S. Air Force ordered ten Lockheed Model L-749 aircraft, the graceful Constellation airliner. They were delivered in 1948 and 1949 to Westover Air Force Base, and the Atlantic Division of the Military Air Transport Command – MATS, for short. Their Air Force designation was C-121A.
One of the first major international crises of the Cold War began on June 24th, 1948, when the Soviets closed all road, rail, and canal access to the parts of Berlin, German that were controlled by the western allies. The Berlin Blockade left the people of West Berlin without their normal supplies of food, fuel, medicines, and other necessities.
In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin Airlift. Round-the-clock flights from England and the United States brought essential supplies to the people of West Berlin. The Blockade was lifted in May 1949, but the Airlift continued until September to supplement the supplies arriving by train and truck.
When it ended after fifteen months, U.S. Air Force and British Royal Air Force planes had made more than 275 thousand flights to Berlin and delivered more than 2.3 million tons of supplies, including 1.4 million tons of coal.
The Lockheed Constellations, with their speed and long range, were ideal for moving supplies from the U.S. to Britain and to Germany during the Berlin Airlift. The Air Force’s eight C-121As, also known as Connies, made continuous crossings of the Atlantic Ocean, flying over five million miles to help deliver relief to West Berlin.
When the Airlift ended, the Connies were converted from cargo planes to high-speed V-I-P transports for the U.S. Air Force. In 1950, during the Korean War, Connie number 613 became the flying command post of General Douglas MacArthur, who was at the time Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Korea.
MacArthur named his Constellation “Bataan,” after the Philippine peninsula known for the infamous Bataan Death March of 1942, when 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were brutally force- marched more than 60 miles to captivity in P-O-W camps. Subjected by Imperial Japanese troops to hunger, thirst, beatings, torture, and wanton killing, more than five thousand Filipinos and 500 Americans died or were killed during the eight days of the march. Many more would die in the P-O-W camps, of torture, starvation, or disease.
In Korea, General MacArthur made 17 flights over the battlefields in his Connie. And she carried him to Wake Island for a meeting with U.S. President Harry Truman. On April 16, 1951, a fateful day for MacArthur, the Connie Bataan carried the general from Korea to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where President Truman relieved him of his command. MacArthur than flew home to San Francisco, his last flight in the Connie.
C-121A Bataan was assigned to the Pacific Air Command based in Hawaii. On her many trips across the Pacific, her passengers included Generals Matthew Ridgeway, Mark Clark, and Curtis LeMay, and South Korean President Syngman Rhee. In 1953, Bataan carried newly elected U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon on an inspection tour of Korea.
All C-121s, including Bataan, were removed from Air Force rolls in 1966 and sent to the bone yard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. Several were stripped of military gear and sold to civilian operators in Canada for use as firebombers and bug sprayers. Three Connies, including number 613, Bataan, were assigned to NASA for use during the Apollo Space program.
Re-designated as NASA 422, Bataan was fitted with computers, tracking gear, and communications gear. She made many flights over the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean to test and calibrate the air- and ground-based tracking and communication relay stations that were essential for maintaining constant contact with orbiting spacecraft.
When the Apollo Space Program ended, NASA 422 was acquired by the Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker in Alabama and put on public display out in the open, and there she sat for twenty years. Two decades of heat, humidity, and southern thunderstorms were not kind to the old warrior, and the expense of maintaining her was beyond the museum’s means. Officials at Fort Rucker considered scrapping Bataan in 1993, until Ed Maloney, founder of the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California offered to take possession of her. “That’s a historic airplane,” he told a skeptical Steve Hinton, president of Planes of Fame. “We’ve got to find a way to do it.”
Planes of Fame traded a helicopter for the Connie, made her airworthy with help from Lockheed, repainted her in General MacArthur’s colors, and took her on the air show circuit. But flying her was costly and after one year on the circuit, Bataan was grounded once again, erhaps permanently.
Enter the Air Legends Foundation, who purchased Bataan in 2015 and hired Steve Hinton’s Fighter Rebuilders company to undertake Bataan’s complete restoration.
Finding parts wasn’t easy and few people knew anything about the 1950’s-era airliner. Making Bataan flyable again was, said Hinton, like restoring 10 or 15 Mustangs. But despite the difficulties, Bataan once again took to the air on June 20 of this year, just in time for the trip to Oshkosh. She proudly wears the colors of General MacArthur’s transport and will soon be given an all-new historically correct interior.
The Bataan will be flying to events around the U.S. and maybe Europe and beyond. So, Bataan will be seen and appreciated by thousands thanks to Ed Maloney’s vision to save her from scrappers and the Air Legends Foundation dream to bring this beautiful and historic airplane back to life.
