The Curtiss Commando Page
The Curtiss Commando Page

Commando 42-96590

Aircraft Identification

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

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-96590

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 30252

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU788

FATE: Broken up

Operational Record

  July 1944 to August 1955

  42-96590 - USAAF (USA)


10 July 1944

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

9 August 1944

Assigned to ATC North African Division.

Unknown date

Assigned to Cairo Payne Field, Egypt.

23 July 1946

Condemned for salvage, probably by the Army-Navy Liquidation Commission, but apparently not broken up.

  August 1955 to December 1955

  ?????? - SANDAY & CO. (USA)


August 1955

Purchased.

  December 1955 to October 1957

  N9889F - BOREAS CORPORATION (USA)


December 1955

Purchased, registration alloted.

16 October 1956

Registered.

Probably 1956-1957

Ferried from Cairo Payne Field, Egypt to Venice, Italy for overhaul and conversion to C-46R at Officine Aeronavali.

  October 1957 to August 1968

  LN-FOR - FRED OLSEN AIR TRANSPORT (NORWAY)


19 October 1957

Registered.

18 November 1957

Purchased.

 

Right: LN-FOR at the old Amsterdam Schiphol, Holland in the mid-1960s.
Photo credit: Jan Buisman / Air Britain
Below: a beautiful shot of LN-FOR just airborne from Copenhagen Kastrup, Denmark in 1968.
Photo credit: Erik Frikke / Airliners.net

  August 1968 to unknown date

  LN-FOR - JOINT CHURCH AID (USA)


August 1968

Leased from Fred Olsen Air Transport to be used in the Biafran Airlift.

Based in Sao Tome, Portugal.

  Unknown date to June 1971

  LN-FOR - FRED OLSEN AIR TRANSPORT (NORWAY)


Unknown date

Returned from lease contract with Joint Church Aid, where it was replaced by Fred Olsen's Douglas DC6.

22 July 1970 to 25 August 1970

Based in Rotterdam, Netherlands to carry out ad hoc cargo flights to & from the UK dring the strikes in British harbors.

 

Right: LN-FOR in Oslo, February 1970, probably soon after returning from Africa.
Photo credit: Bob Garrard / Flikr
Below: LN-FOR, somewhere in Europe on 4 May 1970.
Photo credit: Christian Volpati / Wikimedia Commons

  June 1971 to July 1974

  XW-PHM - CASI (CONTINENTAL AIR SERVICES INC.) (USA)


June 1971

Purchased.

29 June 1971

Delivered in Vientiane, Laos. Equipped with 60 “payloader” seats that folded against the side walls when carrying cargo. Mostly used on rice-dropping missions in Laos.

24 August 1971

Based temporarily in Udorn, Thailand due to the Mekong floods, and continued performing missions into Laos.

15 September 1971

Based again in Vientiane, Laos.

2 July 1974

Registration cancelled.

 

Below: passengers board XW-PHM in Sayaboury, Laos during the weekly Northern Laos milk-run.
Photo credit: Les Strouse / Air America history by Dr. Joe F. Leeker

  July 1974 to February 1976

  N336CA - CASI (CONTINENTAL AIR SERVICES INC.) (USA)


9 July 1974

Reregistered.

12-14 May 1975

Performed evacuation flights from Long Tieng, Laos before it fell to North Vietnamese forces.

Late 1975

Ferried to Seletar AB, Singapore, withdrawn from use and stored.

 

N336CA sitting on a ramp somewhere in Southeast Asia, its colors faded by years of tropical climate.
Photo credit: Geoff Goodall / AV.CA

  February 1976 to December 1976

  N336CA - AMCO AIR INTERNATIONAL (SINGAPORE)


16 February 1976

Purchased.

  December 1976 to July 1977

  N336CA - TRI-9 AIRLINES (SINGAPORE)


14 December 1976

Purchased.

  July 1977 to September 1977

  N336CA - AMCO AIR INTERNATIONAL (SINGAPORE)


7 July 1977

Purchased.

 

Right: N336CA and its two sisterships N335CA & N337CA, for sale at Seletar AB, Singapore. The aircraft still wear Tri-9’s seahorse logo on the tail.
Photo credit: Asia Plane Magazine, 1977

  September 1977 to November 1978

  N336CA - KRIS AIR (SINGAPORE)


13 September 1977

Purchased by Daniel T. Cooley to be operated by Kris Air.

Christened “Manatee II”.

  November 1978 to 1979

  N336CA - PRIVATE (SINGAPORE)


6 November 1978

Purchased by Max E. Moore.

1979

Broken up at Sanday & Co., Seletar AB, Singapore.

Last edited: 21/01/2020