How much does it cost to return a Constellation to flight, according to the person who restored MacArthur's Bataan?

When asked about the cost of returning the Bataan to flight, Seth Hinton, of the company Fighters Rebuild and responsible for overseeing the work, didn't talk about dollars. He preferred a comparison any enthusiast would understand: restoring the Constellation was equivalent to restoring 10 or 15 P-51 Mustangs. The explanation, he said, is twofold: there aren't many parts available, nor many people who truly understand a "Connie" inside and out. Hinton summed up the project as nearly ten years of intensive restoration.

The Bataan is a VC-121A, one of 10 Model L-749 aircraft the Air Force bought from Lockheed and designated C-121A, with serial numbers from 48-0608 to 48-0617. 48-0613 was assigned in the summer of 1950 as the personal transport of General Douglas MacArthur, who named it in memory of the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines. He flew 17 missions over the Korean battlefields in it, and after being relieved of command, used it one last time to return to San Francisco.

The restoration began in 2015, when the aircraft passed into the hands of Lewis Air Legends in Texas. By 2023 it had already regained airworthiness and showed off its restored exterior. The interior was still missing, and was rebuilt at Aerometal International in Aurora, Oregon, finishing shortly before AirVenture 2025. The case illustrates why so few Constellations remain airworthy: beyond the money, every project depends on finding spare parts for an aircraft that stopped being manufactured decades ago, and on gathering the few specialists who still understand its systems.