Capitol Airways (Quicktrans contract)  Curtiss C-46  N9893Z           (c/n  32970)

                                 
                              
                                    Quicktrans contracts were to the U.S. Navy what Logair contracts  were to the USAF.  The pre-
                                    ponderance of these contracts appear to have been let to Zantop Air Transport, but this C-46 (a
                                    former C-46D-10-CU, serial 44-77574) was registered to Capitol Airways when the two shots
                                    (above and below) by Bill Larkins, were taken at Oakland in January of 1965.   Bill, an old Navy
                                    man himself, advises that the 'Buranda' stood for 'Bureau of Supplies and Accounts'.  It is possible
                                    that the aircraft had been leased to ZAT although my records for N9893Z do not show this, and
                                    indicate that it was owned by Capitol from March of 1961 until sold to Shamrock Airlines in 1973.
                                    It did do a stint on lease to Lufthansa shortly after Bill's photos were taken, from September 1965
                                    until July 1969 when it was used to set up the German company's cargo operation.  Oddly, although
                                    in Europe for almost four years it was never given a D- rego. After a couple of years with Caribbean
                                    Air Service from 1976 to '78  it was sold in Colombia as HK-2020.  It was still current well into the
                                    new millennium.        Bob Garrard took a shot of it (photo # 3) at Miami in August 1970 after it had
                                    returned from Lufthansa.   Finally, at the foot of the page is another classic Bill Larkins shot (# 4) of
                                    another Capitol Quicktrans C-46, N69346, the former C-46F-1-CU 44-78578 taken at NAS
                                    Alameda on 20 July 1963.   Odd that in neither aircraft, does the name of the operator appear unless
                                    it was in small titling around the loading door.    Like N9893Z, N69346 also wound up in Colombia,
                                    becoming HK-3205 for Aeronorte Colombia, following which it had several other owners until it was
                                    withdrawn from use some time in the late 1990s. 
                         2.
                                  
                          3.
                                 
                          4.                           
                                   Curtiss C-46  N69346                  (c/n  22401)