Sputtering plane may ground museum

Star attraction can't fly due to blown engine

? 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, nonprofit 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.

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.