Dunes Hotel   Curtiss C-46  N9514C                     (c/n 26759)

                                     

                                        Not really a 'non-sked' airline in the true sense, this C-46 was operated (on a more or less regular
                                        basis) from Long Beach (where my shot, above, was taken in October 1961) and Burbank to Las
                                        Vegas.  Bill Larkins saw it (below) and took the color shot at Oakland.     The Dunes was one of
                                        the first, if not the first, hotel to offer exclusive transportation for their guests.  Others, notably the
                                        Hacienda, soon followed suit.   N9514C was an ex US Navy R5C-1, BuNo. 39541.  When sold
                                        off by the hotel it was acquired by C-46 Parts Inc, a used aircraft broker and went to SAESA in
                                        Mexico as XA-PEX.    In the mid-1970s it was ostensibly sold back in the US as N11807 for
                                        Westernair of Albuquerque, NM. but the deal did not go through and the C-46 was noted at Mexico
                                        City in 1978 in a derelict state.