10/2008 | Restoration begins
Super Star dismantled
As you can easily see from this recent aerial photograph, the work of disassembling the aircraft, which will be used by the Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung (DLBS Foundation) for nostalgia flights, is already well advanced. Over the past few months the Lufthansa Technik team in Auburn has already removed numerous parts, including the radome on the nose, the landing flaps, engines, inside furnishings, ailerons and the "Super Star's" complete tail unit. The tail unit is already being reconditioned at BizJet, Lufthansa Technik's North American subsidiary. Right next to the aircraft you can see a variety of containers, filled to the brim with the L1649A spare parts that the DLBS also acquired at the auction. Over the last few months their previously jumbled contents have been inspected and cataloged, and this laborious work is still continuing as of this date - November 2008.
Working under pressure
Even before the hangar was completed, the competent and committed Lufthansa Technik team was hard at work on the Super Star. Besides removing the aircraft's flaps, rudders and tail unit, the Lufthansa Technik staff in Auburn have already dismantled the radome, the fairings between fuselage and wings, and the Curtiss-Wright engines, each rated at 3,400 PS. The first of the thirteen purchased engines is currently being overhauled in the workshop of a North American company that specializes in maintaining these historic aircraft engines. When this photo was taken the Lockheed "Super Star" was still parked on the grass at the edge of the Auburn airport. It was then towed from the grass onto a concrete apron before the onset of autumn's bad weather. The purpose of the preparatory work carried out in Auburn was to enable the actual structural work on the Super Star's airframe and wings to begin as soon as possible after completion of the hangar.
Hangar construction making progress
In early fall 2008, the rear wall of the future "Super Star" maintenance hangar in Auburn, Maine, which Lufthansa Technik had commissioned especially for this project, was already complete. The hangar will be finished soon, and upon completion it will be the new home of the Lockheed L1649A with aircraft registration N7316C. Here the former TWA freighter will undergo a kind of D-check and be retrofitted as a passenger aircraft. Building a new hangar was unavoidable to enable the complicated structural work to be carried out entirely within a covered workshop, protected from the harsh North American climate. Lufthansa Technik will be renting the new maintenance hangar from Auburn-Lewiston airport for the duration of the project, and as soon as it has been taken into service, which is scheduled for the end of November, the restoration project will begin its next phase.
Back to overview
As you can easily see from this recent aerial photograph, the work of disassembling the aircraft, which will be used by the Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung (DLBS Foundation) for nostalgia flights, is already well advanced. Over the past few months the Lufthansa Technik team in Auburn has already removed numerous parts, including the radome on the nose, the landing flaps, engines, inside furnishings, ailerons and the "Super Star's" complete tail unit. The tail unit is already being reconditioned at BizJet, Lufthansa Technik's North American subsidiary. Right next to the aircraft you can see a variety of containers, filled to the brim with the L1649A spare parts that the DLBS also acquired at the auction. Over the last few months their previously jumbled contents have been inspected and cataloged, and this laborious work is still continuing as of this date - November 2008.
Working under pressure
Even before the hangar was completed, the competent and committed Lufthansa Technik team was hard at work on the Super Star. Besides removing the aircraft's flaps, rudders and tail unit, the Lufthansa Technik staff in Auburn have already dismantled the radome, the fairings between fuselage and wings, and the Curtiss-Wright engines, each rated at 3,400 PS. The first of the thirteen purchased engines is currently being overhauled in the workshop of a North American company that specializes in maintaining these historic aircraft engines. When this photo was taken the Lockheed "Super Star" was still parked on the grass at the edge of the Auburn airport. It was then towed from the grass onto a concrete apron before the onset of autumn's bad weather. The purpose of the preparatory work carried out in Auburn was to enable the actual structural work on the Super Star's airframe and wings to begin as soon as possible after completion of the hangar.
Hangar construction making progress
In early fall 2008, the rear wall of the future "Super Star" maintenance hangar in Auburn, Maine, which Lufthansa Technik had commissioned especially for this project, was already complete. The hangar will be finished soon, and upon completion it will be the new home of the Lockheed L1649A with aircraft registration N7316C. Here the former TWA freighter will undergo a kind of D-check and be retrofitted as a passenger aircraft. Building a new hangar was unavoidable to enable the complicated structural work to be carried out entirely within a covered workshop, protected from the harsh North American climate. Lufthansa Technik will be renting the new maintenance hangar from Auburn-Lewiston airport for the duration of the project, and as soon as it has been taken into service, which is scheduled for the end of November, the restoration project will begin its next phase.
Back to overview
