26 April 2005

Connies: What's in a name?

Sometime while writing the post earlier today on the latest poll results, I hit on the name Connie for the Conservatives and the idea of stalling.

It was an easy leap to the image of the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation. It was the last of great prop airliners, as this link says. Originally designed in 1943, the Connie was fast and had long-legs. After the Second World War, Lockheed bought as many as they could from the US Army Air Corps and Air Force to turn them into civilian airliners. The Connie lasted for years and a few are still around as that link and this one suggest.

It was finally eclipsed by the advent of jet airliners, although Connie are still used visually to represent that period of the late 1940s and early 1950s when long-range passenger travel was still in its infancy. Here are some more pictures.

Connie. Pride of the 1950s.

Not everything has deep or hidden meaning.

Sometimes a cigar shaped airplane fuselage is just another classic airplane.