Commando 43-47412

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46E-1-CS Commando

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 43-47412

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 2938

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CK460

FATE: Written off

  July 1945 to October 1945

  43-47412 - USAAF (USA)

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17 July 1945

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Saint Louis, MO.

Intended as lend-lease to China, but cancelled.

Remained within the continental USA.

  October 1945 to November 1945

  43-47412 - RFC (RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION) (USA)

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30 October 1945

Transferred to RFC and stored at Ontario AAF, CA.

  November 1945 to May 1948

  N59489 - SLICK AIRWAYS (USA)

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29 November 1945

Purchased.

16 May 1948

Damaged beyond repair near Colombus, OH due to structural failure (2/2 fatalities). CAB Report

Crew:
Capt. William R. McCauley
F/O Jack R. Foote

The Commando was conducting a cargo flight between Newark, NJ and San Francisco, CA with intermediate stops in Chicago, IL, Denver, CO and Burbank, CA. There were two pilots and 10,263 lbs of cargo on board. While on the first leg of that journey, the airplane encountered a squall line in which it was subject to extreme turbulence. The crew elected to divert to Columbus, OH and declared an emergency stating that their rudder was locked. After two unsuccessful approaches, the airplane departed controlled flight into a clockwise spin, crashed in a forest and caught fire. It was later found that the vertical fin attachments had sheared during the turbulence encounter, thus jamming the rudder, and eventually leading to a complete structural failure of that element. The probable cause was determined to be turbulence in excess of design loads.

Even though no other Commando ever suffered a vertical stabilizer failure, Curtiss issued a recommendation to reinforce the skin and fuselage around the vertical fin attachment points.

Total airframe time 5,641 hours.