CU-T172  Douglas DC-3                  (c/n  11671)

                                   

                                        Not only is this a nice photograph of a DC-3, but the background provides a fascinating insight
                                        as to what might be found at Havana Airport in the late 1940s.  I have enlarged this area and
                                        present it below.  There appear to be a Monocoupe sans its port wing, two Lockheed 10-C
                                        Electras (probably NM-16 and NM-26, the last two operated) and three Ford 5-ATs
                                        (possibly NM-22, NM-24 and NM-25).   Anyway, back to the DC-3.  Like all Cubana's
                                        aircraft of the day, this was an ex Pan American machine, being previously N19116.  It was
                                        a former C-53D-DO (42-68744) which went to Cubana in 1949.  Unfortunately (for it looks
                                        like a very nice DC-3)  it was one of the aircraft destroyed at Santiago de Cuba in the 1961
                                        infamous "Bay of Pigs" invasion.  It was destroyed and burned in a strafing attack by counter-
                                        revolutionary B-26s (sic A-26s, i.e Douglas Invaders, not Marauders!)

                     

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