Transocean
Air Lines Curtiss C-46
N(X)68967
(c/n 22494)
At the time this Bill Larkins shot was
taken at Oakland in July 1954 this C-46 was registered under
the
Experimental category. By this time
all regos were purely 'N', but the word 'Experimental'
appears in
minuscule print on the fin. It had been modified to use two
Turbomeca Palas turbojet
engines under the fuselage, although they are not mounted in this shot,
and the machine was at the
end of its lease and about to be
returned to the USAF. . The elaborate
protrusion on the star-
board wing
is a yaw meter. Transocean were not a huge user of
the C-46 by nonsked standards,
only operating some 16 of them over the years. N68967 was
used in Taloa's Alaskan Division
and, as such, it
was felt that the small jet engines might be of advantage in short
field performance.
In the event the idea was not pursued. This C-46 later went
to CPAL as CF-CZL, following
which it had several other Canadian owners until withdrawn from use in
Montreal in 1970.
