Warbird Information Exchange

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.)

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.

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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.

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.