VH-INZ Douglas DC-4
'Ratmalana'
(c/n 3077)
VH-INZ was a very early DC-4, built in 1943
as a C-54A-DO (first block) but went immediately
to the US Navy as a
R5D-1. Like VH-INY it was also owned, after WW II, by
the Matson
steamship line and then sold to Air Ceylon. After stints as
VP-CBE and CY-ACB,
it was acquired
by
ANA in 1950. When the DC-6s joined the fleet, VH-INY was
re-painted in the pseudo-National
Airlines livery, as my shot below illustrates. Following
its sale in 1957 to Twentieth Century Airlines
as
N5512V it led a convoluted life with many operators:, to wit: As
HP-351 with Aeronaves de
Panama in 1962;
as 5N-AFC
with Pan African Airlines in 1966; was to have become VP-BCX
with Caribbean Air Charters in 1967 but the deal fell through;
went instead to Crossroads Aviation
as N11117 and wound
up in Phnom
Penh in 1975. It is quite possibly still there.