American Airlines Curtiss AT-32-B  Condor    N12394               (c/n  46)

                                    

                                         In February 1934 the U.S. Government cancelled all air mail contracts due to a scandal involving
                                         corruption, politics and all the nuances in between.  The U.S. Army took over the task of delivering
                                         the mail with disastrous results, but that's another story.   Important to this narrative is the fact that
                                         most of the airlines which had contrived to hold the contracts prior to the government suspending
                                         their services were now resurrected under thinly disguised name changes.  Hence American Airways
                                         became American Airlines in June of 1934.  Having gleaned some more trans-continental routes after
                                         the restructuring, the company  had a requirement for more modern types.   In 1933 American Air-
                                         ways had already picked up Transamerican Air Lines and with it, an order for the earlier Curtiss T-32.
                                         These were put in operation on the New York - Chicago route.  The new routes gleaned after the
                                         company became American Airlines demanded an aircraft capable of flying the Dallas to Los Angeles
                                         route with sleeper accommodation.  Curtiss responded by updating the T-32 to the AT-32.  This
                                         variant of the retractable landing geared biplane had  a more powerful Wright Cyclone engine, plus
                                         controllable pitch props.   The craft could accommodate 15 berths which converted to a 17 seat
                                         day-plane.     A later update was the AT-32-D model, seen below in this image from the Getty
                                         Library.

                                      
                                          Curtiss AT-32-D  Condor    N12399                                         (c/n  51)