Sourdough Air Transport Vurtiss C-46 N95451
(c/n 441)
As its name suggests, this
charter outfit operated primarily within the Territory (as it was then)
of
Alaska. Founded in 1953 at
Fairbanks, it continued until around 1962. It had a modest fleet
of
two C-46s, one
DC-3 and one DC-4. N95451 above was photographed at Oakland in
May
1953 by
Bill Larkins. A close up of the tail appears below.
This C-46 had been acquired from
Arnold Air Service, and before
that it was with Westair
Transport, as seen
in Bill's shot of it in
that
identity. Later in its career this C-46 went to
Canada as CH-IHX and finalkly wound up
in
Venezuela as YV-C-LBH. It was damaged beyond repair aftert ground
looping at Carora,
Lara, Venezuela on 2 November 1962.