Commando 42-107398

Aircraft Identification

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-45-CU Commando

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-107398

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 27085

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU725

FATE: Unknown

Operational Record

June 1944 to September 1947

42-107398 - USAAF (USA)

June 1944

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

September 1947 to unknown date

42-107398 - USAF (USA)

18 September 1947

Transferred.

Unknown date

Modified by Curtiss-Wright for USAF.

Unknown date

Assigned to the 2473^rd Air Force Reserve Training Center, based at Offutt AFB, NE.

28 October 1950

Received minor damage 40 km northwest of Lincoln, NE in an unidentified accident.

Pilot: Robert R. Cook

Unknown date

Assigned to the 2233^rd Air Force Reserve Training Center, based at Mitchel AFB, NY. [quoted as “1133^rd AFRTC, Mitchel AFB, NY” by AAIR, but such unit does not exist]

30 June 1954

Received major damage short of runway threshold at Mitchel AFB, NY in a forced landing due to an engine failure.

Pilot: Horace Lucian Pickett

Apparently not sent to Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ's Arizona Aircraft Storage Squadron.

Unknown dates

N277K - UNKNOWN (USA)

Unknown date

Purchased. [date quoted as 1947 by PL, and January 1948 by JB, but plane was still in USAF service at that time]

Unknown date to May 1956

N9719F - UNKNOWN (USA)

Unknown date

Purchased. [date quoted as 1951 by PL, but plane was still in USAF service at that time]

May 1956 to April 1961

TG-ABA - AVIATECA (GUATEMALA)

17 May 1956

Registered, but probably initially mispainted as TG-ASA. [TG-ABA previously worn by an Aviateca DC2, and later worn by an Aviateca DC6 and CV440!]

18 October 1960

Registration cancelled.

Right: a color profile of TG-ABA during its Aviateca days.
Photo credit: Aircraft Artworks / Flickr

Below: TG-ABA offloading cargo in New Orleans, LA in July 1959.
Photo credit: Mel Lawrence / Airliners.net

April 1961 to March 1964

OB-YAA-564 - AVASA (AEROVIAS AMAZONAS SA) (PERU)

6 April 1961

Registered.

March 1964 to 1965

OB-R-564 - AVASA (AEROVIAS AMAZONAS SA) (PERU)

March 1964

Reregistered.

27 March 1965

Supposedly destroyed by a hurricane in Miami, FL. Registration cancelled. [March is not hurricane season... probably a mixup with sistership OB-M-598, which really got destroyed by a hurricane in the Fall of 1964]

1965