Connie Coming to Oshkosh

Photograph courtesy of Scott Slocum

The recently restored Lockheed C-121A Constellation Bataan, owned by Air Legends Foundation, will be making the trip to Oshkosh this year for EAA AirVenture 2023. In June, the Connie made its first post-restoration flight out of Chino Airport in California. Bataan’s appearance at AirVenture will mark the first time a Connie, either in its military or civilian airline configuration, has attended Oshkosh since the mid-2000s.

Bataan was delivered to the U.S. Air Force in January 1949 to operate within the Military Air Transport Service. After being used during the Berlin Airlift to transport personnel and equipment, Bataan was converted into a VIP transport. During the Korean War, it was used as the personal transport of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who gave it its nickname. Retired in 1965, Bataan was pulled from the boneyard by NASA in support of the Apollo program before it was decommissioned in 1970. From 1970 to 1992, the airplane resided at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum before Ed Maloney of the Planes of Fame Air Museum secured it. From 1995 to 2016, Bataan resided at Planes of Fame’s auxiliary location at Valle Airport in Arizona.

Air Legends Foundation of San Antonio, Texas, acquired the airplane in 2015, with it being flown to Chino, California, in 2016 for restoration work, which was performed by Fighter Rebuilders.

Bataan is expected to arrive at AirVenture 2023 during the air show on Monday, July 24, and depart during the air show on Friday, July 28.