My first ride in an airplane was in Chicago & Southern 749 Connie at the ripe young age of seven in 1953. (All the way from HKS to MEM!) Last flight was in MSANG C-121 JAN-FLL-JAN in ‘64 or ‘65. IMHO, they are the most beautiful airliners ever built.

MM

My second flight in a large airplane took place in mid-summer of 1966. Although I had acquired a PPL my only previous large aircraft flight had been at age 9 in a United Airlines DC-6. In July of that year I joined the 138th AC&W Squadron of the Colorado Air National Guard. This necessitated Basic Training at Lackland AFB in Texas. The ANG arranged for about 15 of us to be transported from Buckley Air National Guard Base in Denver to Lackland, landing at Kelly AFB, by the Wyoming ANG.

Although a couple of hours in sling seats was not the most comfortable, the flight in a Constellation was a memory I will always remember. The aircraft was Wyoming ANG's "The City of Jackson Hole, USAF s/n 54-4062." Photo Below

I absolutely do! I never flew in one but I remember as a very young boy looking up at that triple tail flying over and telling mom “Constellation!”

It was one of the first two airplanes I learned to identify. The Bonanza was the other.