VH-TAS   Convair 240-5                                               (c/n  93)   
     
                                                                                                                                  
                                     Delivered to TAA in October 1948 with the name 'James Cook' .  The rare shot above from
                                     the Bruce Robinson collection was taken over Melbourne before the aircraft went into service.
                                     My shot below was taken at Essendon in 1954.      VH-TAS served with the airline until 1956
                                     when it followed a path similar to sister ship VH-TAP, viz:   Sold to Pakistan International Air-
                                     lines in 1956 as AP-AHS.  Purchased by Fokker in Holland in 1959 as PH-NLP.  Was to have
                                     been leased to Euravia Air Charter NV as PH-EUT but that didn't happen.     Instead it was
                                     purchased by Beldex Corp as N559R in 1960.  1961 saw it with the Peabody Coal Company
                                     (probably as an executive transport rather than lugging bags of coal around), then to Louis Lara-
                                     more in 1961 who re-registered it N559L.  In February 1962 Beldex Corporation purchased it
                                     back (they must have been a broker) and re-registered it  N568R.     Stephens Inc. bought it in
                                     February 1963 and sold it to Little Rock Airmotive in September 1970. It was nearly immediately
                                     sold to Faberge Inc. and given the registration that it wears currently, namely N396CG.     It was
                                     bought by Western Commander in August 1972 and transferred to Western Leasing Corporation
                                     later that month.      Summa Corporation bought it in August 1974 and eventually stored it at Van
                                     Nuys.       Kings Point Corporation bought it in February 1977 and sold it to Gemini Management
                                     Corporation in November 1977. Harold Cousins bought it in July 1980 and sold it to C and M
                                     Airways in August 1989.   Gar Aero Inc. bought it three months later and sold it to Red Stevenson
                                     in July 1990.  It has been registered to Ed Schnepf since 1993 and I ran into it at Camarillo Airport
                                     in Ventura County in 1999 (foot of the page).     I think that Beldex probably installed the radar
                                     sometime in the early 1960s.