CU-P573   Lockheed L-1049E Super Constellation                  (c/n  4557)

                                    
                                       
                                          For some reason this Super Connie is carrying a "P" (for "Private") rather than a "T" (for transport)
                                          registration.  It was actually leased from the manufacturer in 1954 pending delivery of the three
                                          Lockheed L-1049Gs which the airline had ordered.  It is carrying a minuscule registration on the
                                          fin  (visible in a blow up of the original) in practice with the mode of the early 1950s.  This one
                                          went to Seaboard & Western Airlines as a freighter when the lease was up, but the other three
                                          had short service lives with Cubana.  When Castro took over in Cuba, the airline couldn't obtain
                                          spares for the Connies, and couldn't afford to run them anyway.  Furthermore at the time (1961)
                                          there wasn't much market for used prop liners, since the jets were coming on stream, and hence
                                          these elegant machines were scrapped in Cuba.