Curtiss C-46E-1-CS Commando         N30019           (c/n  2975)

                                             

                                                    This image of a C-46E illustrates the stepped windscreen versus the flush glazing of the earlier
                                                    models.  It also had revised doors (for paratroop operations).  This particular C-46 resided at
                                                    the western end of Hawthorne Municipal Airport for several years in the late 1950s-early 1960s
                                                    (I lived virtually next door).   It was a late model, (despite its serial of 43-47418) not being
                                                    delivered until July 1945 when WW II was almost over.  It was built to a Lend-Lease contract
                                                    ostensibly for China, but, in the event, stayed in the USA, and was purchased from Reconstruction
                                                    Finance Corporation stock by a Dr. Seeley G. Mudd at the end of 1945.  It was leased to the
                                                    Ibex Corporation from 1948 until 1967 (the period in which the above shot was taken) and was
                                                    then sold to aircraft brokers A.J. Levin & Co.  It was purchased by Cooperativos de la Industria
                                                    Pesquera of Tijuana in 1968 and registered XB-LIU.   (Shouldn't that have been XA- ?).
                                                    Last reported as late as 1977 as being stored at Ensenada, Baja California.


 

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