The TWA hotel being built at New York’s JFK, using the landmarked classic TWA terminal as its lobby is getting another big chunk of flight-line nostalgia, as a TWA Constellation is on its way from Maine to become the hotel’s outside cocktail lounge.
The Lockheed Constellation series was a mainstay of mainline air travel starting in the late 1940s and continuing up to the beginning of the jet age. The JFK plane is one of 44 Starliners, a late model. The one coming to JFK has had a colorful history after it retired from TWA in 1961, flying as a bush plane in Alaska and a drug-smuggling plane in South America.
There are only three other Starliners remaining; the other three are owned by Lufthansa, whose employees are painstakingly restoring one to flight status, using parts from all three as well as new-build parts and updated electronics. It will eventually be a flying advertisement for the airline.
