Qantas Founders Museum’s (QFM) Super Constellation completed a major milestone last weekend with the aircraft moving from the Manila International Airport to the city's container port for shipping to Australia.
In the early hours of Monday 12 December, the disassembled Super Constellation was lifted from its airport storage site, and transported to International Container Terminal Services at the Manila seaport.
The whole operation took over four hours, travelling 15 km, which included the partial closing one of Manila’s main highways so that the trailers could travel on the incorrect side of the road, and lifting some low power lines. Close cooperation with and support from the airport, police, city governments and road authorities ensured that the tricky operation of moving the very-much oversized fuselage, wings, tri-tail and four engines was accomplished smoothly and efficiently with minimal disruption to the road system.
QFM Chairman John Vincent said the museum was very excited to see the project complete this stage safely and efficiently.
“Moving a 60-plus-year-old disassembled, very large aircraft is no easy feat," he said, "so we are delighted that this stage of the project has been completed and the aircraft is one step closer to its final home of Longreach.”
“Qantas Founders Museum has spent over two years fundraising and working on this project and we look forward to having this iconic aircraft in our museum collection soon."