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Fight for an old bird
Heritage group battles to keep TCA Super Connie in Canada
By IAN ROBERTSON, TORONTO SUN
Local airplane and history buffs are gearing up for a political dogfight to keep a "Super Connie" in Canada.
The 1954 Super Constellation passenger plane's recent sale to a U.S. museum will test federal regulations limiting key artifacts being shipped out of the country, Toronto Aerospace Museum curator Paul Cabot said.
"The rules have been in place for quite awhile, but they haven't been tested very often," he said in an interview.
TRYING TO BLOCK EXPORT
Cabot said his museum is leading a mission to block an export permit required before the 52-year-old grounded relic can be delivered to the Seattle Museum of Flight.
"This plane belongs in Canada," Cabot said at the old Downsview military base, where the Toronto Aerospace Museum displays area-related air force and passenger planes, plus tools, photos, flight simulators and uniforms.
Since foreigners can't seek export permits, the Constellation's last Canadian owner applied on April 24, said Len Westerberg, a Department of Canadian Heritage spokesman.
The 52-year-old plane is on the Controlled Cultural Property List, he said yesterday. In general, items on such a "watch list" are more than 50 years old and were made by a person no longer living.
The Canadian Border Services Agency will review the application. Industry and museum experts are usually contacted to determine an item's historic significance.
Once a permit is denied, Westerberg said the unidentified owner can appeal to a review board. Its members notify about 250 designated institutions, which can make an offer to buy the artifact "for fair market value."
Only institutions on the list can make presentations, he said. Without an offer, an export permit can't be granted.
The once-luxurious plane sat for years as a failed novelty diner in a field on Derry Rd., until Pearson Airport officials tracked down the owner, seeking back rent.
With "Super Connie" in red letters on its fuselage, the 60-tonne, 34-metre-long bird had four propeller-driven engines on its 37.5-metre wings, a distinctive slender, curved dolphin-shaped body and three tailfins. It was the fifth of 14 bought for about $2 million each by Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA). The fleet was replaced by DC-8 jets in 1963.
After ending up in a Quebec field, the CF-TGE was trucked to Toronto and restored as a convention hall for the Constellation Hotel on Dixon Rd. It was moved in the early 1990s and now lies in parts, near Torbram Rd.
The Toronto Aerospace Museum tried to acquire the plane in 2001, but the owner was hard to contact, Cabot said. "She wanted $1 million."
The Toronto museum is prepared to "make a presentation" if the export permit is denied and the owner appeals to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, Cabot said.
"It's the only Canadian aircraft of those used after the war for non-stop, trans-Atlantic and trans-continental flights," he said.
Developed for the U.S. military during World War II, 856 "Connies" were built by Lockheed Aircraft Co. in Burbank, Calif. up to 1958. The 63-passenger, seven-crew TCA plane was among the last of four models. Seven shorter ones are believed to be in the U.S.
One of the 19 surviving "Super" versions -- reported to be for sale in Arizona and the only flyable Constellation -- is a former 1948 U.S. Air Force transport, which was given the name Columbine II when it was used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Others are parked around the world, including one at Le Bourget Airport in Paris and another on permanent display in South Korea since April 2005.
UNUSUAL STYLE
Their unusual style and postwar status made them popular with buffs, including film star John Travolta, a licensed passenger jet pilot, who bought one in 1984.
During the review process, if the owner refuses to sell an item to keep it in Canada, another permit can be sought in two years, Westerberg said.
The 1977 Cultural Property Export and Import Act isn't intended to block all exports, he said. "We have to keep a level playing field," protecting owners wanting to sell possessions while preventing the loss of important artifacts.
The Seattle museum was notified of the permit and review process. Its director could not be reached for an interview.
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