I once worked at a (now long gone) airliner restaurant near Boulder, Colorado. The place was called "The Convair," and was made from the stripped carcass of an old CV990. The interior was covered in wood paneling, and was simply a long, skinny dining room. The cockpit was turned into a wraparound booth with seating for six (and a nice view of the mountains.) The plane was mounted on the roof of a one-story building, which housed the kitchen, bar, and a small banquet room. We sent the food up to the plane on a "dumb waiter," a small elevator that ran from the kitchen up through the belly. The control surfaces were gone, replaced with simple sheet metal. Of course the engine nacelles were missing as well.
I worked there in 1984/85. I understand the place had closed up by the end of the decade, but languished more or less abandoned for another ten years or so due to various legal battles over taxes and such. The plane was eventually scrapped, and the building remodeled as office space. One bit of it does still exist..I found an inspection panel lying on the ground under the left wing one day, and still have it.
There is a warbird tie-in..the owner (Bob Rush) was a Marine and flew Corsairs in WWII. I tried to get some info from him about his experiences, and offered to build a model of his plane, but he just wasn't really interested in talking about it. It wasn't that he was blocking any bad memories or anything, he just didn't really think his wartime service was any big deal.
SN
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