Drivers outside Boston along US interstate I-495 got a unique view of an iconic airplane that might very well belong in a museum.
Painted white and stenciled with a bright red “Trans World Air Lines” logo, the 60-year-old plane is heading to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where it’s expected to be converted into a one-of-a-kind bar and restaurant for the upcoming TWA Hotel with the bar and all FF&E being purchased by The Parker Company.
There was a time when you were more likely to see this kind of plane flying overhead instead of in pieces on trucks along the side of the road.
In the 1950s, before the Jet Age of travel, the Lockheed’s Constellation family of four-engine, propeller-driven airliners were the pinnacle of luxury for travel across the Atlantic and the US, from coast to coast.
Constellations — aka “Connies” — were the first airliners in widespread use that had pressurized cabins. Pressurization allowed pilots to fly high above most bad weather, making for smoother and safer travel.
The TWA Hotel aims to build on the brand — which still remains iconic. The hotel will transform JFK airport’s eye-catching TWA Flight Center, a showstopping former terminal designed in 1962 by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen.
The hotel will offer 512 guestrooms and 50,000 square feet of meeting space. Reservations for guestrooms are expected to be available in December.
The facility also will have a Jet Age museum and a 10,000-square-foot rooftop observation deck, which should please aviation enthusiasts.