Seen after suffering a nose gear collapse.

This aircraft was flown as a "McDonnell Douglas 188" STOL demonstrator in the northeast corridor in the US during 1968. It was not registered in the USA, but was operated by the French Air Force on behalf of McDonnell Douglas in full Eastern Air Lines livery, under its military serial 2 (callsign F-ZJRL, formerly coded "L"). The following year it was painted in American Airlines livery and flown on other routes. The aircraft returned to France in June 1969 and was then operated by the French AF coded 62-NB until withdrawn from use in 1974. McDonnell Douglas had obtained a license to build this in the US as the 188, but since the airlines showed little interest the project was aborted.

Notice number 2 engine removed.

Acquired during my slide trading days in the 1970s and 1980s.

On July 27, 1952 this aircraft was dispatched from Wheelus AFB in an attempt to rescue 32 survivors of a Tropic Airways DC-3, ZS-DFB, which had ditched in the Mediterranean Sea due to engine failure. Despite heavy seas it made a successful water landing and took all 32 survivors aboard from their life rafts and waited for surface vessels to arrive. the SA-16 was damaged by metal lifeboats transferring survivors to the ship to the extent that it couldn't fly back to base. it was further damaged being towed back and is seen here being pulled from the water after arriving. Scrapped April 1953.

Now registered to the DVB Bank, the recent travels of the aircraft have been curious. After being stored at TUS since the 20 Jan 2022 it flew up to ANC on June 17th where is sat until June 29th when it flew back to TUS. it then did TUS-TUS (test? ) flight on July 1st, and flew back to ANC on July 2nd, refueled, and departed(as shown in this photo) for PNH, with a overnight stop at CIS, arriving on July 4th.

Seen departing ANC on it's delivery flight after arriving from BFI for a fuel stop.

Now in full NAC colors, seen taxiing to the ramp after landing back at its home base.

Seen departing ANC.

Owned by DVB Bank and seen arriving at ANC on a ferry flight from TUS.

Seen after arriving back at its Lynden's base in ANC.