DC6B KAR-Air circa 1966

Coming on a treat

As to the variants, I think the DC 6A has a cargo door on the port side front as it was a combi with the '6B being the pax version

Also I believe the DC6A, (and military equivalent.) had a narrow crew door on the starboard like the DC 4 where as all other DC 6 have the wider door..........Can you confirm that Tom??

It's a way of telling an A from a B

Garry

Hi Frank,

Re. the Kar-Air DC-6Bs: Kar-Air had three of them.

OH-KDA was originally a DC-6B which was delivered as N577 to Northwest Airlines in 1957. It was acquired by Kar-Air in 1964, however in 1968 it received the SABENA Swing-tail conversion. It served until 1982 with Kar-Air, after which it was sold to Trans Air Link as N867TA. Unfortunately it was W/O as Northern Air Cargo N867TA at Deadhorse-Alpine (AK, USA) on September 25 2001.

OH-KDB was an ex-Northwest Orient aircraft, having served for the airline as N581. It was acquired by Kar-Air in 1965, and served with the airline until 1972, when it was sold to Delta Air Transport of Belgium. It was originally registered as OO-EVG, but re-registered a year later as OO-VGE. In 1975 she was sold as C-GHLY to Conair of Canada, where she was converted to a firebomber. She is currently stored in immaculate condition, but minus props, at Abbotsford, British Columbia.

OH-KDC was Kar-Air's first DC-6B. It was delivered new to SAS in 1954 as OY-KMU, but was leased as HS-KMU to Thai Airways in 1960-1961. On return it was re-registered SE-BDX, and delivered as such to Kar-Air in 1961. One picture exists of it in full Kar-Air livery at Kopenhagen-Kastrup in 1962, but with SE-BDX registration. It was sold in 1972 together with OH-KDB to Delta Air Transport but not given a Belgian registration; instead it was put into storage in full Kar-Air colours minus titles at Antwerp airport. There it lingered for over a year until it was sold to Yvonne A. Culbertson, however just a couple of weeks later, before it could be flown to its new owner, the aircraft was torched by unknown vandals in the night of January 1st/2nd, 1974.

In a side-note to OH-KDC's destruction: just weeks before, in the night of November 3rd/4rd 1973, another of DAT's aircraft, Convair OO-NVG, had also been damaged beyond repair at Antwerp airport, when unknown vandals had cut into the fuselage with a fire axe (it was subsequently used for spares and broken up in '76), and around the same date graffiti with anti-airport slogans had been sprayed onto the airport's runway. This happened at a time discussions were being held about the airport's future and possible extension, which had provoked protests with the local inhabitants and environmental activists. Nobody was ever arrested over any of these incidents.

Cheers Tom

Is this aircraft a WIP still? I have some guys over at RetroAI that would love to see it through... (For AI and flyable use.)

Any chance of seeing a DC-6 with the SABENA Swing-tail conversion?