Ex USAAF C-82A Packet 45-57777. One of a number of Packets used by Cruzeiro for cargo operations.

Ex USAAF C-82A Packet 45-57777 used by Cruzeiro for cargo operations. In storage at Santos Dumont.

At the time this rare Packet (delivered to the USAF in 1948 as 45-57814) was used by Northern Pacific Transport to haul cargo (mainly fish) all through Alaska. It flew with TWA from 1956 to 1972, and the remnants of their livery are still visible on the fin and fuselage. Also visible are faded "Briles" titles, from its time with Briles Wing & Helicopter during the mid 1970s. In 1992 it was sold and flown to Greybull, WY, where it survived as the world's only flying Packet. In 2006 the Hagerstown Aviation Museum bought it, and the delivery flight to the museum on 15 October 2006 was the last ever flight of a Fairchild C-82 Packet worldwide.

One of 224 Packets built for the USAF (as 44-23033), of which about half were offered to the civil market from 1954, some undergoing Jet-Pak conversion by Steward-Davies with the addition of a J34 jet on top of the fuselage. Without this, the aircraft's engine-out performance was virtually zero. This one was not converted and was last registered to New Frontier Airlift Corp in Feb 1962, although still in USAF marks when seen here. Wreck noted during 2001 at Davis-Monthan in the yard of National Aircraft, Kolb Rd.