This 'Dutch' Connie is a VC-121A, 46-0612, and its Lockheed construction number is 2604. It was delivered to the US Air Force in January 1949 and retired in October 1967. Christier Flying Service Inc. bought it in May 1970 and registered it as N9465. Beaver Air Spray Inc. bought it in April 1979, registered it as C-GXKR and sold it to Conifair in 1979. It is registered now as N749NL and owned by the Dutch Aviation Museum Aviodrome, Lelystad, The Netherlands and the Stichting Constellation Nederland. This foundation became on November 17th, 1993 owner of this Connie and flew it to Tucson/Arizona on September 12th, 1994. It stayed there for a period of 8 years of cleaning and restoration, to be prepared for the flight to Holland.
 

In 2002 this Connie was flown from the USA to Holland by the MATS-Connie crew. The total flighttime from Marana Airport took about 25 hours and several stops were made. The largest part was a seven hours flight from Goose Bay in Canada to Kevlavik on Iceland under freezing conditions. On the 25th of september Connie flew from Kevlavik (Iceland) to Duxford and later to Manston (GB).
 

The Summar vacations in Holland and surrounding countries are a fact and will bring a lot of people to the new Aviodrome museum near Lelystad in one of the Dutch polders, about 6 meters below sealevel. The former KLM Connies all had a name.
The 'last' KLM Connie is named 'Flevoland' to the province that is situated in the new polders. More geographical information about The Netherlands (CIA Worldfactbook). 
Follow more news on the Aviodrome site or follow the propliners' discussion page (see left). 

Last year there have been working more than 85 Dutch volunteers and a lot of Americans to bring Connie back to flying condition. Congratulations with this beautiful plane, that is the oldest flying Connie in the world!

July 2rd: Flying above Lelystad, finding its new home... Pictures by and C.Hensen or H.Reuther. Visit their site: Aviation Top Pics with more excellent pictures of Dutch Connie.
Visit the updated page of Ruud Leeuw, who made pictures and a short story of the first testflight on July, 2nd, 2004. Ruud made again excellent photographs.
See the update page on the Aviodrome-site with a recent picture of the L-749.
See more recent pictures on the site of Willem Honders.
Actual pictures of Dutch Connie on the site of Ruud Leeuw

Picture above: Willem Honders

Picture above: Michael Prophet


Picture above: Frank Sangers


Picture above (published with permission): Willem Honders, June/July 2004.
Click for large pictures.

Picture (published with permission): Willem Honders, June/July 2004.
Click for large pictures.

July 2rd: Flying above Lelystad, finding its new home... Pictures by and C.Hensen or H.Reuther. Visit their site: Aviation Top Pics with more excellent pictures of Dutch Connie.
Visit the updated page of Ruud Leeuw, who made pictures and a short story of the first testflight on July, 2nd, 2004. Ruud made again excellent photographs.
See more recent pictures on the site of Willem Honders.
Actual pictures of Dutch Connie on the site of Ruud Leeuw

Old news!


Running again...
November 7th, 2004-  All four engines of the Dutch Grande Dame seems to be OK after running them all. Engine 3 was replaced under the right wing after a complete check. In front of the visitors of the Aviodrome the engines were started up two times on Sunday, November the 7th. Since July, 6th Dutch Connie was parked behind the museum at Lelystad airport.

Connie is prepared now for the Dutch winter and will stay in open air conditions. The Dutch winter is mostly soft: temperatures are then mostly between +5 and -5 degrees Celcius. During spring 2005 new testflights will be made and Airshows will be visited. But first there is a wintersleep!


Picture: Aviodrome

Flying again, but lame!
Sept, 1st 2004-  She flew over Lelystad on Monday July, 6th for a last testflight, when engine number 3 was suddenly overheated. Connie landed at Lelystad Airfield and was able to taxi the next day to the great welcome and inauguration. About 1500 invited people were present when Mr. Arno van der Holst inaugurated this Connie with champaign. KLM's technical service brought an 'original' new painting on the plane. The colours are the same as those in the early fifties. Since then Connie didn't fly again for safety reasons.
 

The days before the 6th of July Dutch Connie made succesful testflights. Captain Roger Mills and Clint Fraser were on the controls,  J.R Kerns and Pete Philips had special technical tasks on board. They were as proud as the many volunteers who gave a lot of time to the restoration of this Constellation.


Roger Mills and Pete Phillips in the cockpit. Picture: John Kappers




Her new place: Before the reconstructed Airfieldtower of Amsterdam-Schiphol (1930). In winter Connie will be parked inside a hangar. Picture: John Kappers




The picture above was taken in about 1949. (source: Aviodrome)
Below: how she is now, in 2004 (picture: Frank Sangers)

N749NL at home (1): July 2004, Aviodrome. Picture: Frank Sangers
 

N749NL at home (2): July 2004, Aviodrome. Picture: Frank Sangers


N749NL at home (3): July 2004, Aviodrome. Picture: Frank Sangers

The picture below (made by Bas 't Hart and published with his permission) gives you a good impression of the rebirth of a KLM Lockheed Constellation L-749: the pride of Aviodrome.


As she is in spring 2004. Picture: Bas 't Hart, 2004. Click for a large picture.
Below: an original Constellation L-049 in 1946. Picture: KLM




As she was in 2003: the pride of Aviodrome
 Picture: Frank Sangers. See more of his pictures.

More pictures of the N749NL

More pictures of Connies arrival at Lelystad, September 28th, 2002, pictures by Quido te Linde
See some excellent pictures of Ruud Leeuw. 
See more pictures on Futurshox.net Aero; pictures of excellent quality
See more pictures of Connie in Duxford on sept 25th, 2002, made by Damien Burke. 
Some great pictures: see this one, or this one!
Another picture of this beauty (late summer 2001), thanks to Aviodome. 
More info about Connie's Comeback on Airliners Net.