Commando 42-101088

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-50-CU Commando

USAAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-101088

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 30543

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU1079

FATE: Broken up

  September 1944

  42-101088 - USAAF (USA)

18 September 1944

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY.

  September 1944 to November 1956

  39577 - US MARINE CORPS (USA)

18 September 1944

Transferred as R5C-1 and delivered to NAS San Diego, CA.

October 1944

Assigned to Homeland Defense Network (HDN), MAG-35.

January 1945

Assigned to VMR-352, based at MCAS Cherry Point, NC.

10 February 1945

Assigned to VMR-353, probably based at MCAS Cherry Point, NC.

January 1946

Assigned to MAG-21 Service Squadron (Servron-21).

February 1946

Assigned to VMR-252, based on Guam, Mariana Islands.

July 1946

Assigned to NAS San Diego, CA.

31 July 1946

Assigned to MCAS El Toro, CA.

February 1947

Assigned to Air Fleet Marine Force Pacific, based at MCAS Ewa, HI.

2 May 1947

Assigned to VMR-153, based at MCAS Tsingtao, Shandong, China.

  November 1956 to May 1959

  N7760B - AAXICO (USA)

28 November 1956

Registered.

24 April 1959

Registration cancelled.

[uncertainty exists about this Commando actually being N7760B. According to AAXICO records, N7760B is 42-107362 / Bu.No.39573 - which is not possible as that one had a proven track record with ATC, not the Marines. According to FAA records, N7760B is 42-101088 / Bu.No.39573 -  could the present Commando have been Bu.No.39573 instead? Other sources quote N7760B as C/N 68, which in crashed in Brazil in 1944]

  May 1959 to February 1962

  PP-NMC - NAB (NAVEGACAO AEREA BRASILEIRA) (BRAZIL)

2 May 1959

Purchased.

21 July 1959

Registered and operated as a freighter.

  February 1962 to 1969

  PP-NMC - VASP (VIACAO AEREA SAO PAULO) (BRAZIL)

February 1962

Transferred as NAB, sold to Loide in October 1961, was sold to VASP the following year. PP-NMC apparently never operated directly for Loide, remaining under the NAB brand in the interim period.

19 April 1965

Withdrawn from use at Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont, Brazil following the expiry of its Certificate of Airworthiness.

1969

Broken up at Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont, Brazil.

Right: this 1966 shot of PP-NMC at Santos Dumont curiously shows the aircraft in bare metal scheme with a visibly hand-painted registration.
Photo credit: Helio Bastos Salmon / www.airplane-pictures.net