Inside the Archive #9 | The Super Constellation

When the late Gordon Reid, founder of our Traffic column, was asked what got him into spotting, his answer was simple. One summer, he explained, he’d heard a new aircraft was arriving called the Super Constellation. “And, of course, you’d be daft not to be interested in an aircraft that looked and sounded like the Super Constellation did. That got me started in my middle teens.”

The Super Constellation, a variant of its obviously-titled little brother, first flew in 1951. In total, 579 were built, with Qantas taking 16. But the raw specifications don’t tell its full story. Put simply, ‘Connie’ was the aircraft that popularised truly long-haul travel, with Qantas deploying it on its legendary Kangaroo Route to London – then the first trans-global service in history. Such was its ability that Qantas carried the Melbourne Olympic flame from Athens to Darwin in a specially modified container onboard one of its aircraft. And that’s not to mention its stunning, curved design that made it the prettiest passenger aircraft in history.