Piedmont Airlines Douglas DC-3CS1C3G   NC79029            (c/n 20471)

                               

                                     Another airline which eventually merged into the Allegheny family (and consequently is an
                                     ancestor of USAir) was Piedmont Airlines of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  The DC-3
                                     above was built as a C-47A-90-DL  with USAAF serial 43-16005.  It was civilianized in
                                     1946 in freighter configuration for Lone Star Cargo Lines.  Piedmont acquired it in 1948.
                                     In the mid 1950s Piedmont re-registered its DC-3s into a new series and N79029 became            
                                     N47V.   It was sold in 1960 to the Spanish Air Force and became T.3-26.  It was withdrawn
                                     from use following an accident in April 1962.           Seen below is a photo from the Carolinas
                                     Aviation Museum collection showing NC8820 in 1949 livery.   This aircraft was only used for
                                     a short time in pax service.     It wasn’t a very popular airplane with the passengers, since the
                                     only space provided for cargo was in two large wooden boxes facing the door. The first thing
                                     a passenger saw on entering was what appeared to be a long, dark, coffin container.     After
                                     only a few months, this particular DC-3 was sent back to the lessor (Southern Airways). Two
                                     years later, however, Piedmont purchased NC8820, which had in the interim been modified
                                     and the “coffin” taken out.  By that time it was re-registered N53V.   In 1958 the aircraft was
                                     sold to a Canadian coal company as CF-HGD and they used it to work on the DEW Line.  It
                                     later returned to the US as N341 for Provincetown-Boston Airlines.

                                     Douglas DC-3CS1C3G                                                         (c/n  13041)