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What happened to Boeing 307 NC-19906?

Posted by bdk on Fri May 03, 2002 03:18:46 PM

Boeing Country: Boeing 307s had unusual flight careers
Eastside Journal (Bellevue Wash) 05/02/02
author: Chris Genna

We've been dealing with aircraft of the future so much lately -- Boeing's X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle a week ago and Blended Wing Body transport Tuesday -- that it's time for a little history.

When I wrote April 2 about the crash-landing of a fully restored 1940-vintage Boeing 307 Stratoliner in Elliott Bay, several readers asked me what became of the others.

Now, if someone asked what happened to all those 707s, you wouldn't read about it here. But Boeing built just 10 Stratoliners before World War II forced the company to concentrate on bombers. Of the pressurized four-prop airliners, N19903 is the last survivor.

After an entire afternoon of ``browsing'' the Internet -- actually, it was more agonizing than that -- a simple phone call to Mike Lombardi of Boeing archives in Bellevue provided the answers.

Four of the art deco transports were built for Pan American Airways and five for Trans-Western, later TWA. One was built for millionaire Howard Hughes, but since he was the principal stockholder in TWA after mid-1940, the distinction is pretty academic.

* The prototype, NX-19901, an S-307 for PAA, crashed -- came apart in midair, one Web source said -- in a fatal spin in Washington on March 18, 1939. All 10 aboard were killed.

Boeing fitted a greatly enlarged vertical stabilizer with dorsal fin on all subsequent 307s. The same fin later was applied to the B-17E and all later Flying Fortresses.

The second PAA plane, NX-19902 ``Clipper Rainbow,'' took over flight testing. It and PAA's two other S-307s had varied lives. They served in the Army Air Forces during World War II as C-75s, then returned to civilian flying until PAA sold them starting in 1948.

TWA's five SA-307Bs also were drafted as C-75s, and after the war given later B-17G wings and more powerful engines. Sold to French airline Aigle Azur in 1951, they served mainly in Southeast Asia.

* NX-19904, the one SB-307B built for Hughes, never made its round-the-world record attempt -- indeed it was hardly flown at all. It received major damage from a hurricane in 1964, and was sold for $61.99 in 1969, a Web source said. The fuselage was converted to a houseboat, now known ingloriously as the ``Cosmic Muffin.''

Here's what happened to the other seven, in date order:

* NX-19910, PAA's ``Clipper Comet,'' re-registered N-75385, crashed May 10, 1958, at Madras, Ore. No one was hurt.

* NX-19902, PAA's ``Clipper Rainbow,'' had become Air Laos' F-BHHR when it crashed May 22, 1961, at Tan Son Nhut near Saigon, South Vietnam. All 28 aboard survived.

* NC-19909, TWA's ``Navajo,'' was re-registered F-BELZ and owned by Airnautic when it crashed Dec. 29, 1962, into Monte Renosa near Ajaccio, Corsica. All 25 aboard died.

* NX-19905, TWA's ``Comanche,'' was Air Laos' F-BELV when it crashed -- probably shot down -- Oct. 18, 1965, at Hanoi, North Vietnam. Boeing data says 12 were aboard; a Web site said 13 members of the International Control Commission staff were aboard. Both said all were killed.

* NC-19908, TWA's ``Apache,'' was flying as XW-PGR for Air Laos when it crashed Feb. 27, 1971, near Luang Prabang, Laos. No source listed the number aboard or casualties.

* NC-19907, TWA's ``Zuni,'' also was flown by Air Laos as XW-TFR when it crashed June 27, 1974, in Battambang, Cambodia. Lombardi's material said 16 of 25 on board were killed; a Web source said there were 39 people aboard and 19 were killed.

* Put a big asterisk by NC-19906, TWA's ``Cherokee'' -- it may not even belong in this list. It had numerous owners before it became Cambodia Air's XW-TFP. The last entry for it in Boeing's data is 1974, except for a note that said there were unconfirmed reports of it still flying in 1986.

But one Web site said it crashed March 13, 1975. Details were sketchy: The Web site said it was operated by Royal Air Lao, but no location was given. Since neither of the two aboard were hurt, the plane may have been repaired later.

NX-19903, PAA's ``Clipper Flying Cloud,'' you know about. It was owned by the Corps d'Aviation de l'Armee d'Haiti in 1954-57, and was the personal transport of Haitian dictator Francois ``Papa Doc'' Duvalier.

Sold to Arkansas Air Freight in 1965, it went into storage in 1969. The National Air and Space Museum acquired it in 1973 and loaned it to the Pima Air Museum in Arizona, where Boeing employees found it and flew it to Seattle in 1994.

It was meticulously restored in the plant where it had been built and was to be returned to the museum in 2003 before it was ditched during a check flight.

Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier said April 18 that a thorough damage assessment of the old Clipper had been completed and Boeing executives in Chicago were to decide if the plane will be restored to static display status or to fly again.

That decision still hasn't been made, Boeing spokeswoman Cristina McHugh said yesterday.

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