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Photo ID: 1015013
click image to enlarge |
Model: C-54, DC-4 Skymaster |
Registration: N86554 |
| Year: 1942 |
Serial Number: 41-20139, c/n 3051/DO3 |
| Engine(s): Four P&W R2000 |
Owner: Capital Airlines |
| Location: Unknown |
Photographer: An old 6x9 photo from the Ken Stoltzfus collection. |
| Date: 1948 to 1961 |
Present Registration: Unknown |
Present Owner (FAA info): |
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Notes: 6/5/04 - This is the third C-54 built! It is a C-54-DO, USAAF 41-20139, c/n 3051, fuselage number DO3 and was built in Santa Monica, CA. Original gross weight was 65,800-lb.
She was delivered 5/15/42. On 6/3/43 she had a ground collision with C-46, 41-12283 in Natal, Brazil, but was obviously repaired.
NC86554 was assigned when it went with Pennsylvania Central Airlines where it became "CargoLiner Washington" and flew from 1/46 to 4/48. PCA was acquired by Capital Airlines and it served them from 4/48 until 7/61. It retained the "CargoLiner Washington" name and was given the number "411". Capital was acquired by United Air Lines in 7/61. While this aircraft appears on their fleet list, it was sold to Sam Goldman of Chesapeake Airways in Salisbury, MD, 8/22/61, only a month later.
It then went to Charlotte Aircraft of Charlotte, NC. Charlotte Aircraft installed Wright R2600-29A or -35's (B-25 engines) on C-54's. Our family sold them several hundred zero time engines in the 1960's, but I have no idea if this aircraft was converted. My 1967 and '68 U.S. Civil Aircraft Registries show it registered to Commercial Aircraft Corp., NYC, NY but it does not appear in the 1976 directory. One source says that it was scrapped.
Isn't that a neat old curved entrance ramp! And note the C-18 Twin Beech on the left. The sign on the Quonset hut says "Capital Airlines Operations Office, Employees Only". Can anyone tell us where the photo was taken? |
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