Commando 42-101201
Aircraft Identification
VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-50-CU Commando
USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-101201
CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 30656
COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU1192
FATE: Stored
Operational Record
October 1944 to October 1945
42-101201 - USAAF (USA)
18 October 1944
Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY.
27 October 1944
Assigned to ATC Alaskan Division.
27 March 1945
Returned to the continental USA.
31 March 1945
Assigned to ATC North Atlantic Division.
7 April 1945
Assigned to Grenier Field, NH.
October 1945 to ca 1949
42-101201 - RFC (RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION) (USA)
7 October 1945
Transferred to RFC and stored at Bush Field, GA.
ca 1949 to 1951
February 1952 to January 1968
PP-VCE - VARIG (BRAZIL)
18 February 1952
Purchased.
29 May 1952
Registered.
Mid-1950's
Fitted with underwing Turbomeca Palas jet engines. [date uncertain]
December 1960
Converted to Super 46C, jet engines removed.
9 August 1964
Certificate of Airworthiness expiry, withdrawn from use.
Below, left: PP-VCE in its Palas configuration with underwing jet engines.
Photo credit: Lucio / Pinterest
Below, right: the same a few years later as a Super 46C, Rio Santos Dumont, March 1962.
Photo credit: Mel Lawrence / www.airliners.net
January 1968 to October 1978
PP-VCE - ASL ARRUDA INDUSTRIA E COMERCIO (BRAZIL)
16 January 1968
Leased from VARIG.
19 December 1968
Purchased.
By 1970
Stored engineless at Rio de Janeiro Galeao, Brazil.
[reportedly sold by the successors of ASL to TABA (Transportes Aereos da Bacia Amazonica) on 9 May 1978, but that company was long gone by then]
Right: freshly repainted PP-VCE in Arruda's colors, Rio Santos Dumont, 13 February 1968.
Photo credit: Vito Cedrini / www.airliners.net
Below, left: already engineless, PP-VCE probably at Rio Galeao, unknown date.
Photo credit: Michel Anciaux / Aviation Rainbows
Below, right: PP-VCE now stored behind a fence, Rio Galeao, 27 March 1976.
Photo credit: Tony Pearce / Air Britain
October 1978 to present
PP-VCE - MUSEU EDUARDO MATARAZZO (BRAZIL)
11 October 1978
Donated to Museu de Armas, Veículos e Maquinas Eduardo Andre Matarazzo in Bebedouro, Brazil.
Stored outside, derelict.
Below, left: PP-VCE at Museu Eduardo Matarazzo; note the four-bladed props, not a standard feature on the Super 46C.
Photo credit: unknown
Below, right: the same on 11 January 2007.
Photo credit: Renato Spilimbergo / www.jetphotos.net
Bottom: two pretty shots of PP-VCE taken on 23 April 2011.
Photo credit: Raphael Brescia / Flickr
Last edited: 27/08/2023