Commando 42-96609

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

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-96609

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 30271

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU807

FATE: Written off

  July 1944 to 1954

  42-96609 - USAAF (USA)

11 July 1944

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

27 July 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.

  1954 to 1956

  OD-ABZ - LIA (LEBANESE INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS) (LEBANON)

1954

Purchased. [originally intended for VARIG but not taken up according to AB]

  1956 to 1959

  OD-ACL - LIA (LEBANESE INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS) (LEBANON)

1956

Reregistered.

  1959

  N1001A - BOREAS CORPORATION (USA)

1959

Purchased. [definitely not 1951 as quoted by JB]

  1959 to 1961

  N1001A - SKY VAN AIRWAYS (USA)

1959

Leased from Boreas Corporation.

Right: N1001A with Sky Van at Chester County Airport, PA.
Photo credit: www.flyinghigher.net

  1961 to January 1962

  N1001A - BOREAS CORPORATION (USA)

1961

Returned from lease to Sky Van.

  January 1962 to July 1968

  I-SILA - SAM (SOCIETA AEREA MEDITERRANEA) (ITALY)

6 January 1962

Purchased and intended to be used for cargo charters with a payload of 11,000 lbs.

31 October 1962

Operated for Alitalia in Alitalia titles on scheduled cargo routes: Rome-Milan-Frankfurt & Rome-Tripoli thrice weekly with FIAT & Maserati car parts, and Albenga-Malmo & Albenga-Stockholm twice weekly in the winter with flowers.

Early 1968

Replaced by Douglas DC6B recently withdrawn from the passenger fleet and converted into cargo aircraft. Stored in Rome, Italy.

17 July 1968

Registration cancelled.

Left: I-SILA wearing the early SAM titles, probably sometime in 1962.
Photo credit: Wim Zwakhals / oud16hoven.nl
Below: I-SILA wearing Alitalia titles, unknown date & location.
Photo credit: Claudio Maranta / www.azfleet.info

  July 1968

  N10624 - AAXICO (USA)

17 July 1968

Registered.

  July 1968 to July 1973

  N10624 - NORTH AMERICAN AIRCRAFT TRADING CORPORATION (USA)

July 1968

Purchased.

10 December 1968

Ferried through Prestwick, UK bound for Europe.

Operated on the Biafra Airlift.

1970

Ferried to Miami, FL.

Left: N10624 seen in Miami, FL in June 1973. What does the "Odi" logo on the tail stand for?
Photo credit: Werner Fischdick / ASN

  July 1973 to September 1979

  N10624 - MIAMI AIR LEASE (USA)

18 July 1973

Purchased, and probably leased over the next few years to numerous cargo operators in the Caribbean and South America, one of them being Kimex [unknown].

28 September 1979

Ditched off San Andros Island, Bahamas after engine problems (no fatalities).

Was the Commando involved in drug smuggling?

11 April 1981

Registration cancelled.

 
Below, left: N10624 seen in Miami, FL on 19 June 1978.
Photo credit: Mick Bajcar / Air Britain
Below, right: N10624 lying in shallow waters off San Andros in the 1990’s.
Photo credit: Joshua Ridder / jridder.zenfolio.com