Museum's centerpiece in jeopardy due to engine

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Airline History Museum's star attraction can no longer fly -- and that might ground the museum for good, too.

The museum at Kansas City's Wheeler Downtown Airport owns the only operational Lockheed Constellation in the United States. But catastrophic failure in one of the vintage airliner's engines last month has forced the cancellation of two scheduled air show appearances, including one set for Labor Day weekend in St. Louis.

It would take more than $120,000 to rebuild the engine and that would drain the volunteer-run, not-for-profit museum's reserves dry.

"If this plane doesn't fly again, we're out of business," museum spokesman Cliff Hall said.

Foe Geldersma, the museum's president, said the No. 2 engine on the four-engine "Super Connie" blew during routine maintenance on July 20.

Geldersma was in the cockpit.

"We switched the engines on and they started fine, no problem," he said. "We waited for them to warm up, and then we ran them up to do the first check at 1,700 rpm, and that checked out OK. Then we took the two outboard engines up to a higher power setting, and they checked OK."

But when Geldersma increased power to the No. 2 engine, the closest to the cockpit on the left side, three cylinders failed and fire shot from the stricken engine.

Geldersma put out the fire with an extinguisher, but not before the blaze damaged the plane's skin.

The other three engines were overhauled three years ago, museum officials said, but the one that failed was not.

The aircraft, built in 1958, was restored in the 1980s by a group of Kansas City aviation enthusiasts.

Museum officials hope it will fly again and plan to build a new No. 2 engine over the winter.

"We're going to ship two engines, and they'll take the best of everything and add a bunch of new parts and build one engine," said Larry Denning, the museum's director of flight operations.

In the meantime, they will look for ways to raise money to pay for the repairs.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com