VH-TAP   Convair 240-5                                                       (c/n  42)        

                                 

                                    
                                     Delivered early in 1949 with the name 'Matthew Flinders' and saw first service on 1 April
                                     1949 from Melbourne to Brisbane. My snap was at Essendon in 1955.  -TAP was sold to
                                     Pakistan International Airlines in 1956 as AP-AHO.  It was then purchased by Fokker in
                                     Holland in 1959 as PH-NHZ.  Was to have been leased to Euravia Air Charter NV as PH-EUR
                                     but that didn't happen.  Instead it was purchased by the St. Louis-based aircraft broker Remmert
                                     Werner as N557R.   After refurbishing to executive transport standard they sold it to Falstaff
                                     Brewing Co in 1961 as N503.    It was acquired by Alaska Coastal Airlines (and converted back
                                     to 44-pax seating) in 1966 and re-registered N196N.  When Alaska Airlines absorbed that carrier
                                     in 1968 they had no use for it in their existing fleet and it was withdrawn from use.   Start up
                                     Pacific Nevada Airlines leased it from Jan to May of 1973 when Alaska were forced to repossess
                                     it back for non payment of lease. It was sold later that year to Pacific Coast Airlines (which may
                                     have been a restructured and re-named Pacific Nevada) and in 1975 passed to Pacific Airlines.
                                     It was repossessed by Crocker National Bank in 1976 and withdrawn from use and broken up
                                     at Long Beach Municipal in 1978.