Designed in the 1930s as a high-capacity airliner, she found a rather different calling during WWII: hauling troops and cargo for the US military.

With almost twice the payload of the more famous Douglas C-47/DC-3, and much better performance at altitude, she proved invaluable on the India–China Airlift, better known as “The Hump.” From 1943, C-46s hauled vital supplies through brutal weather and across the forbidding mountain ranges between India and China.

Of course, she had her flaws. The C-46 was thirsty, mechanically complex and far more demanding to maintain than her smaller Douglas sister, which would take much of the glory after the war.

That reminds me of Ernest Gann’s Fate Is the Hunter (mandatory reading for any aspiring pilot, if you ask me), and the way he cursed the C-87, a cargo derivative of the B-24 Liberator, seemingly every other page.
His verdict: “They were an evil bastard contraption, nothing like the relatively efficient B-24 except in appearance.”

Sounds almost like a modern A380-versus-747 comparison. Just kidding.
Mostly.

The C-46 had her share of headaches too. But powered by two mighty 2,000-hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engines, she earned her place in aviation history.

Of the 3,181 built, only a handful remain airworthy today. Three are with Everts Air in Alaska, still hauling essentials to remote communities where aviation remains a lifeline.
Look closely at the weathered Pratt & Whitney decal: DEPENDABLE. Eight decades of hard work, captured in one word.

Many thanks to Everts Air for letting me photograph these wonderful machines in Kenai, Alaska.

Some airplanes simply refuse to retire.
And somehow I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, when the very last 747 is parked in the desert, its crew is picked up by one of these classics and flown back to the land of the living.