PP-CAX
Junkers Ju-52/3mW
(c/n 4043)
Two more rare shots from the Joao Novello
collection, showing the Ju-52/3m float PP-CAX.
Above it is seen at a busy river port in northern Brazil in
1934. The Junkers G-24 in the right
background is PP-CAB*, whilst the W-34 is unidentified. I
have enlarged that section of Joao's
original
print (bottom of page) so that the three Junkers L-5 engines on
-CAB can be discerned.
The shot below
shows PP-CAX at the Hydro Terminal at Calabouco in Rio Janeiro.
The build-
ing in
the background is the old customs house. PP-CAX was named 'Curupira' by Condor,
and was
the formerly Lufthansa's D-3356, later D-ABIS. When WW II came
along and Condor's
ownership
became untenable, many of the early German machines were sold to
Argentina, includ-
ing
PP-CAX which became T-159 with the Argentine Air
Force. . It was later civilianized as
LV-ZBD
and wound up, Joao tells me, in a museum in Argentina displayed in
LADE livery and
named 'Rio Negro'.. .
* PP-CAB (c/n 944)
was built in 1927 as D-1287 although was shipped almost immediately
to Brazil
where it became P-BABA 'Ypiranha'.
It was leased to VARIG from July to Sept 1927.
It was written off in
a crash at Coruripe, Alagoas in October 1938.