Tweet
I was very pleased to see that despite its no doubt lucrative foray into the world of modern Airbus twins that Aeroclassics continues to also stay true to its roots and has pleased classic collectors everywhere with their new C-46 releases (Chinese Air Force and Pan Am).
I always think that the C-46 is a widely overlooked type, which I guess isn't a surprise when you shared the stage with the C-47/DC-3, but despite this over 3,000 were built. The type sufferred quite badly from mid-air explosions
and poor serviceability during WW2 but a wing vent modification enable pooled gasoline to drain away seems to have solved the explosion issue at least!
The powerful engines, which helped to make it the largest twin engine aircraft of WW2, were not terribly efficient and meant it was up to 50% more expensive to operate than the DC-3 which killed its chances as a pax aeroplane however they made it an excelledn freight type especially in rough field areas like Alaska and South America.
Unsurprisingly there have been a wide variety of operators, mainly in the New World, which can lend themselves to some interesting 1:400 models. Personally I prefer the classic operators but there have been quite a few C-46s pottering around until fairly recently.
Below I list just a few civil operators which would look great.
USA
Alaska Airlines
Braniff International
Capitol Airways
Delta Air Lines
Everts Air Cargo
Flying Tigers
Modern Air Transport
Reeve Aleutian
Rich International
Seaboard World
Wien Alaska
Caribbean
Air Haiti
Bahamasair
Dominicana
South America
Austral
LASA
North East Bolivian
Taba
Varig
VASP
I always think that the C-46 is a widely overlooked type, which I guess isn't a surprise when you shared the stage with the C-47/DC-3, but despite this over 3,000 were built. The type sufferred quite badly from mid-air explosions
and poor serviceability during WW2 but a wing vent modification enable pooled gasoline to drain away seems to have solved the explosion issue at least!The powerful engines, which helped to make it the largest twin engine aircraft of WW2, were not terribly efficient and meant it was up to 50% more expensive to operate than the DC-3 which killed its chances as a pax aeroplane however they made it an excelledn freight type especially in rough field areas like Alaska and South America.
Unsurprisingly there have been a wide variety of operators, mainly in the New World, which can lend themselves to some interesting 1:400 models. Personally I prefer the classic operators but there have been quite a few C-46s pottering around until fairly recently.
Below I list just a few civil operators which would look great.
USA
Alaska Airlines
Braniff International
Capitol Airways
Delta Air Lines
Everts Air Cargo
Flying Tigers
Modern Air Transport
Reeve Aleutian
Rich International
Seaboard World
Wien Alaska
Caribbean
Air Haiti
Bahamasair
Dominicana
South America
Austral
LASA
North East Bolivian
Taba
Varig
VASP
Comment