Pan Am wartime operations. NC25642 was delivered in May 1940. Later supplied to Cubana as CU-T138 - see other photo of this construction number. Destroyed in CIA-backed B-26 Invader raid on eve of Bay of Pigs invasion on 15 April 1961. Photo from: SFO Museum

What became of this 1940 DC-3 is unclear. It may have been leased to the US Navy as BuNo 99099, which is listed as lost over spurious 'Yamagaga in North Pacific' on 16 February 1944. NC25643 cancelled in July 1944. Alternatively it went to Mexico as XA-CAM. Photo from Clyde Smith, Pan Am station manager in Fairbanks, and probably taken at old Weeks Field which could be used by DC-3s 'with caution'. At times of bad conditions, airlines were allowed to use Ladd Army Airfield from 1940. Photo from: SFO Museum

Delivered to Pan Am as NC25653 in 1940. To CMA as XA-HAO. Back to Pan Am as NC25653 then reregistered as XB-KEM in 1948, XB-MIL in 1962 and N600RC in 1975. Preserved at Polk City by 1999.

Cubana photo. Aircraft believed destroyed in 1961 during Cuban civil war. Photo from: Civil Aviation Historical Society, Melbourne, Australia

Still in basic Red Carpet colours. Painted in USAAF D-Day markings as "D8-Z" by April 1991. To the Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk City, FL by 1999.

Aircraft is positioned atop a small hill overlooking busy I-4, which links Orlando and Tampa.

This crash pose was an attraction for the Fantasy of Flight collection, positioned right alongside the main I-4 highway in central Florida. At one point wrongly thought to be N4797H c/n 25623, it may perhaps be a composite using parts from other Daks. Note hapless airman hanging on under tail! Still at the same spot, but no longer in a nose-down position by 2018.