PI-C45 Douglas DC-4 Far Eastern Air
Transport
(c/n 10353)
Pre-WW II
there was, in the Philippines, a company called Iloilo-Negros Express
Co (INAEC) founded
in 1932. Obviously interrupted
during the war, (wherein its entire fleet was destroyed) it rose again
after-
wards (in
1946) with DC-3s and at least one DC-4, and changed its name to
Far Eastern Air Transport,
Inc. (FEATI). In addition to
inter Philippines routes it also did some overseas contracting/route
exploration
flights with the
DC-4 to the US, to wit, Oakland where this rare shot from the
Bill Larkins collection was
taken, circa
1946. It, and another company, Commercial Air Lines, Inc
(CALI) were absorbed by Philip-
pine Air
Lines in 1947. The DC-4, possibly the
only one that INAEC operated, was named "Miss
Mindanao", a name carried thru when
flown by Philippines Air Lines. An ex C-54A-15-DC, delivered in
July 1944, the aircraft was civilianized
in 1946 as N75414 for Executive Transport Corporation who soon
sold it to
FEATI. Oddly. it was sold to Transocean Air Lines later in
1946. TALOA owned it until 1948
when it was sold back to Manilla for
Philippine A/L as PI-C106. A year later it was sold to Bharat
Airways
in India as VT-CZW. After
transferring to Indian Airways Corp and later used for spares, it was
broken up
at Bombay in May 1982.