Commando 44-77632

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46D-10-CU Commando

USAAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 44-77632

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 33028

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU1564

FATE: Written off

  January 1945 to September 1947

  44-77632 - USAAF (USA)

January 1945

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

Unknown date

Assigned to I Troop Carrier Command, based at 813^th AAF Base Unit, Sedalia AAF, MO.

11 May 1945

Damaged at Sedalia AAF, MO in a taxi accident.

Pilot: George R. Seitz

The Commando hit a sistership of the same unit while taxiing at Sedalia AAF, MO.

  September 1947 to January 1954

  44-77632 - USAF (USA)

18 September 1947

Transferred.

Unknown date

Assigned to the 315^th Troop Carrier Wing, 34^th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium based at Brady AB, Japan.

3 January 1954

Damaged beyond repair in Keya, Kyushu, Japan in a crash due to a stall.

Pilot: Cpt. Robert D. Rutledge Jr. (killed)

[this Commando was deemed by Dr. Joe F. Leeker to be Air China's B-1517, later leased to VIAT as XV-NIF and XV-NII. That airplane was recorded as "44-33028", a non-existent serial, guessed to have been msn 33028 for which no history was known. However, it has been revealed since that this airplane crashed in 1954 as per above information - the identity of B-1517 remains a mystery...]