Douglas DC-4, PAA “Clipper Monsoon” c. 1948
DC-4, Pan American World Airways NC-88887

Douglas DC-4, Pan American World Airways, Registration NC-88887, c. 1946.
(Minicraft kit #14520 ©2001 [original tooling]

While digging into my ancestry on one of those sites, I stumbled across a passenger manifest showing my mom and her family arriving in Miami from San Juan, PR, on 11 June, 1946. I looked up the tail number and found several images of “Clipper Monsoon”, a re-purposed C-54 brought into post-war service as a Pan Am Clipper. I had the Minicraft C-54 kit, so… off I went.

This aircraft was delivered to the USAAF in March 1945 as 44-9063, C-54E-5-DO, c/n 27289, and recovered from Reconstruction Finance Corporation by Douglas aircraft for conversion to DC-4. It served with PAA from 1946 to 1952, then with a succession of carriers and private owners until retired in 1989. In 1990 it was retired to the Berlin Airlift memorial at Frankfurt airport where it basks together with a weary C-47 celebrating that massive mission of mercy.

The kit goes together very well and looks the part. Props are much improved over contemporary Minicraft 1/144 airliner releases that are plagued by misshapen and/or uneven propellers. The kit’s Candy Bomber decals look the part, but I used instead decals from Vintage Flyer, customized with the correct PAA Clipper name and tail number.

Paints are rattlecan and Alclad II metallic, sealed in Future.