"Thing One" and "Thing Two" are Rob Barion's sister ships that serve his company Barev, and his aviation museum, "The Newark Museum of Aviation". They are two Lockheed C-121A's, the military version of the L-749A Constellation.

At a low point in the passenger airline market, Lockheed was losing money on the Constellation airliner. A number of airlines had cancelled, or scaled back their orders for aircraft in the post WWII aircraft slump. Desiring a modern passenger-cargo transport place, the newly independent United States Air Force (USAF) ordered ten L-749A's as the C-121A. It was the second attempt the armed forces gave in obtaining the Constellation airliner; during the Second World War, attempts to convert the Constellation into a cargo plane, as the C-69 was met with numerous problems. A low priority aircraft pushing the state of the art under wartime handicap, the C-69 never amounted to anything more than twenty airframes assembled. They were quickly sold off by the military, converted by Lockheed back into L-049's, and sold on the civilian market. The C-121A was a vastly improved Constellation, a well matured airliner that was proving itself in the passenger airliner market. The USAF ordered ten, and the US Navy ordered two, as the PO-1W Warning Star (later WV-1), the prototype to the later WV-2 radar picket plane.

This aircraft: Depicting "Thing Two" (both aircraft are identically painted), 48-616 was delivered to the USAF in December 1948. It entered service with the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) and was immediately dispatched to aid in the Berlin Airlift by flying supplies from the US to Europe. After the airlift, it was upgraded to VC-121A standard and served as a staff transport until its retirement in 1967. The aircraft was flown to Davis-Monthan for storage.

Sold with three other C-121A's in an auction, 48-616 went with her sister ships to an aerial spraying company in 1969. Converted for the role, the three Constellations, along with a couple DC-4's, served the western half of the United States and Canada in spraying for fire ants, mosquitoes, and beetles throughout the 1970's. It passed hands to a Canadian spraying group in 1980, before finally being retired in 1983. The aircraft was flown back to the US and sold to a group desiring to restore it as a passenger airliner, but nothing came of the venture. The aircraft was purchased, along with its sister ship, 48-615, by a Darryl Noland in 1985, in hopes of starting an ad-hoc cargo charter.

Noland heavily modified the aircraft, equipping them with turbocompound R-3350-972TC-18DA-3 Cyclone's from the later L-1049 Super Constellation. The project folded before the flights began, and both aircraft were stored away in Nevada by Noland until 2014, when Jake Barion purchased the two planes.

Ferried back to Ohio, Jake Barion used the two aircraft in hopes of starting a cargo operation to support a business venture he was concocting. Under the name of "Old Bird Cargo LLC", he put the two C-121's immediately to work, which he carved a niche market out. Later obtaining two C-121C's, and two R7V-1's, the fledgling little group made some momentum, until Jake decided to exit the aviation market in early 2015. He gave the two C-121A's to his twin brother Rob Barion, who placed them initially in storage, before bringing them back into operation to support his various business projects. The aircraft were modified back to L-749 configuration with 2,500hp noncompound R-3350's, as the increased torque and horsepower of the former power plants were leading to excessive stress on the engine mounts.

Restored back to their original MATS colors of the early 1960's, the two Connies fly for Rob hauling engine and aircraft parts across the country. They serve as overflow aircraft for his Centoh Intermodal group, and the ATS group he's under with his partner, Joey Paulo. The planes fly in pairs all the time; rarely do "Thing One" and "Thing Two" fly alone. They have even crossed the Atlantic Ocean a few times in Rob's tenture- hauling parts to Britain for Felix Barion's DC-6B restoration. Despite their glamorless work as box haulers, they perform valuable yeoman duties for Barev.