Commando 42-101201

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

  October 1944 to October 1945

  42-101201 - USAAF (USA)

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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)

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7 October 1945

Transferred to RFC and stored at Bush Field, GA.

  ca 1949 to 1951

  XB-JAP - FRIGORIFICOS COOPERATIVOS LOS ANDES (MEXICO)

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ca 1949

Purchased from RFC.

  1951 to February 1952

  XA-HAM - DONALD "DON" L. CARDIFF (USA)

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1951

Purchased.

  February 1952 to January 1968

  PP-VCE - VARIG (BRAZIL)

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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Certificate of Airworthiness expiry, withdrawn from use.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)

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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

  PP-VCE - PRIVATE (BRAZIL)

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11 October 1978

Purchased by Jose Rolando da Silva Barbosa.

  October 1978 to present

  PP-VCE - MUSEU EDUARDO MATARAZZO (BRAZIL)

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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