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I love this masterpiece of
Constellation with such a " bric à brac ", around it...
Registered F-ZVMV, it corresponded to Lockheed Constellation C/n
2503. Property of ENSA, the Upper School for Aeronautics, the
establishment was considered as an annex of CEV, it was used as a
flying test bed for any experiment purposes in the frame and
engine studies leading pupils to be graduated as engineers and
join top jobs in all the civil and military research or
production establishments. This particular Lockheed Constellation
had as registration: N 86520, XA-GOQ and for France F-BAZR under
the colours of Air France. Possibly this Connie, after AF was
passed or loaned during the sixties to Armée de l'Air as SAR
aircraft and possibly I flew it during February 1962 for various
rescue exercises at very low level inside the Algiers Bay, in
North Africa. The aircraft was then silver and orange day-glo.
Here, it carries on the rear series of masts various aerodynamic
sections of fuselage and jet-engine cowlings. From March 3, 1971
this Constellation of ENSA was used for the first in-flight tests
of the Turbomeca/SNECMA LARZAC O1 jet-engine prototype, the basic
civilian version. Work was in full procezss with the military 04
which had been selected as the future powerplant for the Dasault-Bréguet/Dornier
Alppha-Jet trainer and light-attack aircraft having just ended
its definition stade on February 15.
Around 1976, the Sud Aviation Caravelle N°193 F-ZACF replaced
his Constellation which became the property of the French Air
& Space Museum installed on the historic Le Bourget Air Port,
a few miles north of Paris.
