United Air
Lines Douglas DC-3
N19934
(c/n 4979)
By the late 1950s most of United's passenger
carrying DC-3s had been replaced by Convairs,
and
hence many of them were converted to Cargoliners. This nice shot
of "Cargoliner Chicago"
by
Bill Larkins was taken at Oakland when minuscule registration numbers
painted on the fin were
in
vogue. It illustrates the white-topped livery then in use by the
airline. This aircraft was originally
built to a
Northwest Airlines order, but WW II intervened and it was diverted on
the production
line to
become a C-53C-DO (43-2023) for the USAAF. United acquired it in
1949 as a freighter.
It went to the
Chrysler Corporation in 1954 (as N81R) and was used to haul automobile
parts
around the
country.
C-53C