Thursday, October 12, 2017

C-46 Commandos


Are any of these still airworthy?

8 comments:

  1. There is one flying fuel up in Alaska. They show it once in a while on "Life Below Zero" on the National Geographic channel.

    I think the Burmese Hump just plain wore out most of them.

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  2. They didn't make as many of these as they did of the venerable C-47

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  3. My dad flew these "over the hump" in WWII at age 20. I have some NDB approach plates they used for getting down into mountain valley airports. Pretty challenging and scary stuff looking at it from the perspective of current GPS navigation capabilities in aviation today. He was part of the Austin Hump Pilots Association until they had to disband because most of the membership had died.

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    1. Kudos to your dad, Scott. Indeed, the greatest generation.

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  4. I will send you a picture if I can find it of them loading 55 gallon barrels into a C-46 in India with an elephant to lift the barrels. Living conditions were very basic.

    The C-46 had many nicknames including Dumbo and the Curtiss Calamity. There is an interesting article about the history of the aircraft at http://www.historynet.com/going-commando.htm.

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  5. there was one that I used to see on the ramp in Norman,OK haven't seen it in a few.

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  6. The CAF has one in Camarillo, CA

    https://www.cafsocal.com/our-aircrafts/our-aircraft-and-history/c-46-china-doll/

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  7. A quick search of the FAA registry, shows 26! C-46/C-46A/C-46R's still registered in the US of A. Or were still in the FAA database.


    http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/AcftRef_Results.aspx?Mfrtxt=CURTIS&Modeltxt=C-46&PageNo=1

    C-90

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