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.
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.
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