Commando 42-96654

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

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-96654

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 30316

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU852

FATE: Preserved (cockpit only)

  July 1944 to unknown date

  42-96654 - USAAF (USA)

21 July 1944

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

29 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.

  Unknown date to June 1960

  N9905F - RIDDLE AIRLINES (USA)

Unknown date

Purchased.

Ferried to Venice, Italy, overhauled by Officine Aeronavali.

27 September 1956

Delivered to the USA via Prestwick, UK.

  June 1960 to 1964

  N9905F - CAPITOL AIR (USA)

June 1960

Sub-leased from Southern Aircraft Leasing, leased from Riddle Airlines.

  1964 to July 1964

  N9905F - AIRLIFT INTERNATIONAL (USA)

1964

Returned from lease contract with Capitol Air. In the meantime, ownership of the aircraft had been transferred from Riddle Airlines to Airlift International as part of the company name change.

  July 1964 to unknown date

  N9905F - ZANTOP AIR TRANSPORT (USA)

16 July 1964

Leased from Airlift International.

30 June 1966

Purchased.

28 July 1966

Damaged beyond repair at Port Elizabeth, NJ in a belly landing (0/2 fatalities).

Shortly after takeoff from runway 22 at Newark, NJ, while climbing to a height of 200 feet, the left engine failed. The crew could not maintain altitude and completed an emergency belly landing in a field. The airplane slid for several yards before coming to rest. Both pilots were slightly injured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The cause of the engine failure was the failure of the master and connecting rods and piston rings. At the time of the accident, the total weight of the airplane was 9,114 pounds above the MTOW. Poor supervision on the part of the operational personnel of the company who dispatched an overloaded aircraft was the reason for the Commando not being able to maintain altitude on one engine.

  Unknown date to March 1978

  NO REG - ORTNER AIR SERVICE (USA)

Unknown date

Wreckage purchased and moved to the company’s base in Wakeman, OH.

  March 1978 to 2012

  NO REG - PRIVATE (USA)

30 March 1978

Cockpit section of the wreckage purchased by Leon Cleaver of Norwalk, OH.

  2012 to present

  NO REG - PROJECT WARBIRD MUSEUM (USA)

2012

Cockpit section of the wreckage purchased.

September 2013

Restoration of the cockpit section started in Ashville, OH.

42-96654’s cockpit section being refurbished by Project Warbird Museum in Ashville, OH, September 2013.
Photo credit: Eric Miller / Project Warbird LLC