After well over a year of selecting retired airframes visible on global mapping software, I am finally featuring a Douglas DC-3 Dakota! This distinctive silhouette is not just any DC-3, however, but the first of the breed-at least the front half of it is. The first six deliveries to American Airlines (AA) were designated Douglas Sleeper Transports (DST). The example on these pages, the first real DC-3, NC16009 (c 1545), was delivered to AA in September 1936. and sold to Brazil in 1951 as PP-SQH with VASP (Viacao Aerea Sao Paulo). It was severely damaged at Con-gonhas airport, Sao Paulo, on September 28, 1959, in collision with Curtiss C-46 Commando PP-BTE.
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