Vanished Warrior

Dayton, Ohio

Curtiss C-46 Commando - August 1967 - Dayton, Ohio. My older brother and I would occasionally roam around the civilian aviation side of the airport looking for aircraft of interest. This was my first encounter with a C-46. It looked like a DC-3 (C-47) on steroids. Most of them saw service in the Pacific or China-Burma Theatres of operation. I did a search on the Internet to determine if this old bird still existed somewhere. The result was not encouraging. . .

78553 (c/n 22376) to N1535V Ortiner Air Service, ufo (withdrawn from
use, stored) Sunnyside Ent, Reg. Cancelled 5/2001.

Another C-46 operated by Ortiner Air Service went to a Confederate Air Force chapter in California. Maybe this bird became a hangar queen?