XA-KIQ
Douglas DC-6B
(c/n 43836)
The big Douglas
transports were certainly handsome looking machines. The DC-6B
was
the best of them all, in my
opinion. Smoother flying and more economical than either the
straight DC-6 or the DC-7 series, it
saw wide service with the world's airlines in the 1950s
and early 1960s. Strangely, CMA only
had two of them (XA-KIR was the other) and sold
them to
Northwest after only a year's operation, preferring to run their DC-6s
on the L.A.
to Mexico City route
instead. Possibly because their DC-6s were specially fitted with
Pratt
& Whitney CV 16-17 engines for hot
and high performance. XA-KIQ became N567 when
in service
with Northwest.