HS-SAA  Douglas DC-3                           (c/n  13726)

                               

                                  Before Thai Airways International there was Thai Airways, a company founded in 1951 by an
                                  amalgamation of Siamese Airways Company and Pacific Overseas Airlines (Siam).  The latter
                                  was a US owned corporation operating domestic flights within Thailand and also from Bangkok
                                  to Hong Kong and Calcutta.   In 1959 Thai Airways signed an agreement with SAS which not
                                 only provided its partner with equipment but which led, eventually, to the formation of  Thai Inter-
                                 national.   HS-SAA was a FEAF RAF Dakota IV (KG725) which was civilianized for Siamese
                                 Airways in 1947.   It was inherited by Thai Airways on 1 November 1951 and eventually re-regis-
                                 tered HS-TDA.   I observed it languishing at Don Muang Airport, Bangkok (the airport with the
                                 golf  course between the parallel runways) in the early 1980s.   Presumably it was scrapped soon                               
                                 after.