Commando 41-21041

VARIANT: Curtiss C-55

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 41-21041

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 101 (I) [not to be confused with 101 (II)]

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): -

FATE: Broken up

Right: 41-21041 in BOAC colors as G-AGDI after being tested by the USAAF.
Photo credit: David Gebhardt & Darren Glenn / "C-46 Commando", In Action No.1188, by Terry Love, Squadron/Signal Publication

  March 1940 to June 1941

  NX19436 - CURTISS-WRIGHT CORPORATION (USA)

Built at the Curtiss-Wright factory in St Louis, MO as the Commando prototype.

Received the internal designation CW-20T.

26 March 1940

First flight.

Pilot: Eddie Allen (pictured right just before the first flight, next to George Page who designed the aircraft)

1941

Empennage modified to a single vertical stabilizer.

30 July 1941

Registration cancelled.

Left: the CW-20T before its first flight at a 1939 airshow in New York.

Below: cabin mockups of the CW-20T transport, and the aircraft rolling out of the St Louis plant in April 1940.

Bottom: several pictures of the CW-20T in flight, the bottom ones with the new single tail.

  June 1941 to September 1941

  41-21041 - USAAF (USA)

20 June 1941

Purchased by the USAAF.

Converted to C-55.

23 June 1941

Assigned to Wright Field, OH, presumably for testing.

26 September 1941

Assigned to Defense Aid.

Right: the one and only C-55 in USAAF colors.
Photo credit: USAF / John Menzies

  September 1941 to October 1943

  G-AGDI - BOAC (BRITISH OVERSEAS AIRWAYS CORPORATION) (UK)

Late September 1941

Purchased for £70,000 (equivalent to $280,000) and christened "St Louis".

Assigned to BOAC's long-haul network in a 24-seat configuration.

12 November 1941

Ferried from Canada to Prestwick, UK by BOAC Captain A. C. P. Johnstone in 9 hours 41 minutes.

12 December 1941

Operated a Bristol Whitchurch, UK to Lisbon, Portugal commercial flight.

13 December 1941

Operated a Lisbon, Portugal to Bristol Whitchurch, UK commercial flight.

27 December 1941

Operated a Bristol Whitchurch, UK to Prestwick, UK and return commercial flight.

28 December 1941

Operated a Bristol Whitchurch, UK to Prestwick, UK commercial flight.

14 February 1942

Operated a Prestwick, UK to Bristol Whitchurch, UK commercial flight.

24 February 1942

Operated a Bristol Whitchurch, UK to Bournemouth Hurn, UK and return commercial flight.

28 February 1942

Ferried from Bristol Whitchurch, UK to Bristol Filton, UK.

2 March 1942

Ferried from Bristol Filton, UK to Bristol Whitchurch, UK.

6 March 1942

Flew from Bristol Whitchurch, UK to Bristol Filton, UK, and on to RAF Portreath, UK.

9 March 1942

Flew from RAF Portreath, UK to Gibraltar.

11 March 1942

Flew from Gibraltar to Bathurst, Gambia.

From mid-1942

Assigned to the Gibraltar-Malta route.

1943

Withdrawn from use due to a lack of spare parts.

29 October 1943

Broken up in the UK.