The Curtiss C-46 Commando

The sight of a C-46 has always aroused the interest of the aviation enthusiast. Something of an enigma - a two engined medium range transport produced during World War II, but completely overshadowed during that period by the ubiquitous DC-3/C-47 - the C-46 has nevertheless found its way into many obscure but interesting situations. The ungainly C-46 was, of course, a much larger transport than the C-47, with about twice the payload. Its finest hours during the war were spent over the treacherous Himalayas on the "Hump' operation supplying Allied forces in China from bases in Assam, India. Its niche in post war aviation was as a cargo carrier, first of all in the United States, but then in ever increasing numbers in Latin America. Chronicling the wanderings of the individual C-46s has proved to be a challenging pastime. The nature of the operators, often short lived non scheduled cargo operators in less developed areas has certainly been a major difficulty. The Curtiss-Wright Corporation left the aircraft manufacturing business shortly after the war, resulting in its records being almost inaccessible. This has prevented us from clearing up a number of discrepancies in constructor's number allocations. We have, however, thoroughly researched the USAAF C-46 operations, and paid particular attention to this aspect in the General History. This Monograph follows the pattern of previous Air-Britain type histories. It has, however, been much longer in gestation. The first preliminary work on it began in 1966! The intervening years have enabled us, piece by piece, to fit the puzzle together, and we hope that this account does justice to the events.--Taken from preface.