Lockheed C-121 Constellation

The Lockheed C-121 Constellation or "Connie" was an improved version of the C-69.

The first postwar improvement to the civilian "Connie" was the longer-range L-749 of 1947 which the USAAF purchased as the C-121.  By 1949 the demand for air travel was increasing which resulted in the L-1049 Super Constellation with a longer fuselage and capable of carrying 109 passengers.  The L-1049 was in turn replaced by the L-1649 Starliner with a completely redesigned wing with a far greater fuel capacity.

Military applications included transport, VIP transport, airborne early warning, electronic countermeasures, reconnaissance and weather reconnaissance.  On Oct. 24, 1967 over the Gulf of Tonkin, an EC-121D (S/N 53-555) guided a U.S. fighter by radar into position to destroy a Mig-21. This was the first time a weapons controller aboard an airborne radar aircraft had ever directed a successful attack on an enemy plane.

When production ended in the late 1950s a total of 856 aircraft of all versions, civil and military had been built.  The "Connie" lived on for decades as an airliner and freighter in many smaller countries.

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