The Curtis C-46

Tinker Belle..Owned and Flown by the Commemorative Air Force

The C-46 was pressed into service long before it was ready. And like in so many stories, this green rookie with no experience and everything working against it became the hero of the world series. What I mean here is that the C-46 was un-proven when pressed into service on the HUMP, and was plagued by maintenance and service problems. And yet, it became the main-stay and the work-horse of the entire operation.

When the HUMP routes were forced to the north by the fall of Lashio and Myitkina to the Japanese, a transport had to be found that could negotiate the 20,000 ft. + altitudes of the Himalayas with a full load. The C-47 could not reach those altitudes when fully loaded, so the Curtis C-46 was pressed into service. The plane was so "green" that test pilot Herb Fisher logged over 90 missions over the HUMP as a civilian to help iron out the bugs. All this time, military missions were also being flown in the aircraft.