1953 Lockheed L1049 G Super Constellation F-BGNJ
Under registration F-BGNJ, the Super Constellation No. 4519, type L-1049 C, was delivered to Air France on November 2, 1953. He is now the only survivor of the 24 aircraft purchased by the French Company at Lockheed. Put into commercial service on November 15, 1953, it opens the most prestigious lines: the BGNJ criss-crosses the world transporting the greatest celebrities of the time from Paris to Buenos Aires, from New York to Paris, or flying over Pointe à Pitre, PNOM Penh, Caracas, Tokyo… In 1956, it was modified to L-1049 G. It was on August 8, 1967, after 24,284 hours of flying under its colours, that it was disbanded from the Air France fleet. It then briefly bears the Spanish registration EC-BEN, before being acquired in 1968 by the company Air Fret. It then took the registration F-BRAD and was subsequently used by Air France crews to carry out medical evacuations in Biafra, the origin of the association «Aviation Sans Frontières» which was born 10 years later. The Lockheed Super Constellation F-BRAD 1049-G landed in Nantes for the last time in 1974. He narrowly escaped a reinforcement reserved for him and was bought by Mr. GABORIT, a private individual who maintained him for several years with little means to show him to the public on the parking lot of the terminal. In 1999, it was acquired by the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de l'Aéroport Nantes-Atlantique and entrusted to our association for its restoration.