United Air Lines  Douglas DC-3-343       NC19964     (c/n  2265)

                                    

                                        United began replacing its Boeing 247Ds with DC-3s at the end of 1936.  Even though the Boeing
                                        airliners were a little more than three years old at the time, clearly they were outclassed by the svelte
                                        Douglas machines.  The evocative shot above shows "Mainliner Seattle" winging its way south on
                                        the Pacific coast route in the late 1940s.  (This machine had originally been delivered to Western Air
                                        Express in 1940, but at that time a cozy sort of equipment interchange existed between the two lines).
                                        As one of the "big four" airlines in the U.S., United operated, at one time or another, over 120 DC-3s.
                                        c/n 2265 was sold off in the 1950s and wound up working for Servicios Aereos Santa Isabel in the
                                        Argentine as LV-HOJ.  As late as September of 1982 it was photographed at Toronto's Lester B.
                                        Pearson International Airport (see below) by Den Pascoe , bearing the titling "Empressa Provincial
                                        de Aviacion Civil -  Santiago del Estero" .  It appears to have been cannibalized for parts, however,
                                        rather than going onto the Canadian civil register.