PROPLINERS AT MANILA, PHILIPPINES 1975

A selection of photographs I took on my first visit to SE Asia during September 1975

1970s style security at the Manila Domestic Terminal.   PAL DC-3 RP-C960 loads for a scheduled passenger flight




Air Manila International Fairchild F-27s, Handley Page Herald RP-C866 and Lockheed Electra at their maintenance hangar

AMI Lockheed L188 Electra RP-C1063 was named "Miss Voyager"

Near the AMI hangar, retired early-production Fairchild F-27 Friendships were being broken-up for scrap.
PI-C875 shows the Philippines registration prefix prior to the change to RP-C in 1973

Air Manila International Handley Page Herald PI-C867 was waiting to be scrapped


Magnificent Curtiss C-46D RP-C1461 was one of two purchased by local freight operator Oasis from Air America.
The former registration N1383N could be read etched into the fuselage metal

Oasis Air's second C-46D was being prepared to enter service and was awaiting its Filipino registration to be allocated.
It was previously Air America's N9458Z which operated in the SE Asian war zones for many years,

Looking abandoned, Douglas DC-6B N62129 was formerly PI-C949, king of the fleet with Filipinas Orient Airways.
Faded paintwork by the rear passenger door proudly claimed "Fully Pressurised and Radar Equipped".
Despite appeances, it flew out on delivery to a US fire tanker company on 12 November 1975, only two months later

Retired Oasis DC-3 RP-C40 has been pushed om to the grass with engines removed and airframe stripped of parts.
Formerly PI-C40 with Philippine Airlines, it was among the first DC-3s on the Register after WWII

Three former Filipinas Orient Airways Nord 262As were waiting to be delivered to USA. This one had been RP-C968.
N88TC was ferried via Europe a few weeks later. The three were modified as Mohawk 298s for Swiftaire in California.

Village Airways had five DC-3s for cargo charter. Here RP-C646 waits to be loaded on the cargo ramp.

DC-3 RP-C490 had been fitted with extended cabin windows in the past

Commercial Air Transport's RP-C647 had the port P&W R1830 removed for overhaul

Paranan Logging Enterprises' DC-3 RP-C649 was retired and stripped, left next to some stripped USAF C-47s

Despite the Beech E18S Super 18 style paintwork, this is a 1946 model Beech D18S with upgrade mods.
It was later to be destroyed by a ground fire here in February 1980.

Fairchild F-27F N9090 was based at Manila with a local agricultural company, later becoming RP-C890

Vacant land within the airport was cultivated.   PAL's Argosy RP-C1192 had just been delivered, ex RAF XP540

More land cultivation up to the edge of the airport military area, with numerous C-47s

 International Fruit & Produce Co's Lockheed 18 Lodestar RP-C577 had been repainted from N577X only a few days earlier.
The big Lockheed been converted by Lear Inc to a Learstar in 1956 and later had Howard Aero modifications.
Two years later it reverted to N577X, flew back to USA and was impounded in Colombia on a drug run in 1978.


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