was the Curtiss CW-20/C-46 ever pressurized?

[Stephan Wilkinson]

The CW-20 was designed to be pressurized--one reason for the figure-eight fuselage--and I have read one source that says the original CW-20 production prototype, briefly operated by BOAC, WAS pressurized. Was this true, and were any C-46s ever pressurized, whether for military or postwar civil service? (I don't believe they were.)

[JohnB]

You're correct that it was designed for pressurization, but according to Peter M. Bowers' Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947, the prototype (CW-20A, c/n 101, NC19436/G-AGDI) was "Intended for cabin pressurization that was not used".

Military examples never had pressurization nor did surplus examples converted for civil use.

[civvystreet]

Hi...I'll bump this thread to separate the CW-20/St Louis from the USAAF C-46 stuff. I suspect the prototype wasn't pressurized in BOAC service....don't know if it had pressurization in the U.S...I also assume it kept the Wright R-2600 engines and wasn't re-engined to P&W R-2800s.

[civvystreet]

In the book 'Blockade Runners' (Nilsson, Sandberg, English translation) a BOAC Captain Sigfrid Rendall says....'The CW-20....was brought over the Atlantic from the States to England by Captain A.C.P. Johnstone, who picked up the plane for a cheque of £70, 000 from BOAC, quite a bit of money in those days. (£1=$4 then, so $280, 000)
Johnstone made the first flight to Stockholm with that plane......(may have been Gibby Rae as co-pilot/navigator) . Rendall further says ' I came back to Leuchars on 2 October 1942, when we did four crossings (in the CW-20....crew Captain Veasey, Co-pilot/nav Rendall, engineer Gear, radio operator Frape). BOAC did not get much use out of this large aircraft...it was very sophisticated....oversensitive...compared to British standards at that time. I think eventually 2500 line modifications were made before the CW-20 was line produced.'
( Elsewhere)...the St Louis (CW-20) made some ten flights to Stockholm in the fall and winter, 1942.