German airline buys man’s historic planes

PORTLAND – Three historic airliners purchased by an aviation buff from Auburn during the 1980s have been sold at auction to a division of the German airline Lufthansa for a total of $748,000.

Maurice Roundy had been trying for years to make at least one of the Lockheed Constellation Starliners airworthy again. His dream ended Tuesday when the planes were sold as part of bankruptcy proceedings involving him and his wife.

Roundy kept two of the Starliners, with their 150-foot wingspans, on his property next to the Auburn airport. He kept the third at the Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk City, Fla.

Hundreds of Constellations, known affectionately as the “Connie,” were produced by Lockheed starting in World War II. Roundy’s planes were among 44 L-1649A Super Constellation Starliners built in 1957. The only other one still intact is in a museum in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“It had always been Maurice’s dream to return one or more of his prized possessions to flying status and tour the air show circuit. But for almost twenty years, this goal eluded him,” aviation writer Ralph Petterson wrote in a 2002 article posted on his personal Web site, www.conniesurvivors.com.

“Maurice had the vision, desire and knowledge to make it all happen but lacked the financial backing.”

Two of Roundy’s planes were originally bought by TWA as luxury airliners. The third was bought by Lufthansa.

“This was the last big piston-powered airliner,” said Al Caruso, chief operating officer for Portland-based Maine Aviation Corp.

“You can see how sleek-looking it is. It was fast, almost 300 miles an hour,” Caruso said. “For the time, it was very advanced.”

But the Starliner was doomed within a few years when the jet engine became the standard for commercial flight. Over time, most Starliners were scrapped, and the three that Roundy located and purchased had been converted into freighters and abandoned.

While disappointed that Roundy never realized his dream of restoring the planes, Caruso was encouraged that Lufthansa had purchased them.

“Lufthansa is probably going to restore at least one of them, if they are bringing that much money in,” Caruso said. “That is kind of amazing.”

Jennifer Urbaniak, a spokeswoman for the airline, said the buyer is a Berlin-based foundation within Lufthansa’s aviation group.

“They essentially seek to preserve and restore and operate older aircraft from the Lufthansa fleet,” said Urbaniak, who was unaware of what specific plans the foundation may have for the Starliners.