PP-LEP  Curtiss C-46                     (c/n  26798)

                               

                                     Loide Aereo Nacional operated one of the largest fleets of C-46s in the world.  Over the years
                                     they owned more than 40 of them.    Loide was originally founded in 1947 as Transportes Carga
                                     Aerea, S.A. (T.C.A.) which, as the name suggests, was an all freight outfit.   In 1949 the company
                                     was reorganized as Loide Aereo Nacional and began passenger services from Rio to Fortaleza,
                                     via Belo Horizonte and from Sao Paulo to San Luis, also via Belo. PP-LEP was a former
                                     C-46A-35-CU (42-3665).  It flew with REAL as PP-YQD in the early 1950s. Loide purchased
                                     it in 1954 and it became PP-LDU.  For some reason they sold it in 1957 but repurchased it again
                                     in 1958.  At this time it assumed the PP-LEP identity.  Maybe Brazil has a thing about re-allocating
                                     previous registrations.  Anyway, when VASP acquired Loide in 1962 this machine passed to the
                                     assets register of that company.  It was withdrawn from service and broken up at Rio de Janeiro in
                                     1969.  The above shot was taken by the late Peter R. Keating and comes via the Jennifer Gradidge
                                     collection.