California Eastern Airways  Douglas DC-4  N1437V                     (c/n  10403)

                                     

                                           California Eastern was founded by Jorge Carnicero in 1946, based primarily in Burbank, although
                                           the above shot was taken at Oakland in 1956.  It originally began operations as a scheduled cargo
                                           carrier.    Two years after being organized, California Eastern Airways, although being the second
                                           largest independent air carrier, filed for bankruptcy in May 1948, and its assets were acquired by
                                           Slick Airways.  The remnants of the line were then purchased by Land-Air, Inc. (which was later
                                           renamed DynCorp) who reformed it as California Eastern Aviation, but flew under the old California
                                           Eastern Airways title   It later gained military cargo and passenger contracts from California (mainly
                                           Oakland) to the Far East, and at one stage Convair CV-880s were envisaged..  Some notes I have
                                           indicate it flew supply runs during the Korean War.  Anyway, by 1962 the CEA identity had been
                                           dropped and the company was known as the Dynalectron Corporation.    As such it is still extant
                                           although no longer runs air services, being a conglomerate of companies employed in a wide variety
                                           of sciences.
                                           N1437V was an ex C-54A-15-DC built for the USAAF in 1944 as 44-72298.   Civilianized in
                                           1947 it went to Pan American as their N88914  'Clipper Golden Eagle", then in 1950 to Alitalia
                                           as I-DALZ, then to REAL as PP-XEF before being acquired by CEA in 1954.  It later passed to
                                           sister company California Hawaiian  before going to Liberia as EL-ADS.     To pursue its career
                                           further for the context of this entry would be academic, but suffice it to say that the poor old thing
                                           met its end when it crashed into a mountain near Saravena, Arauca, Colombia on 30 August 1975.