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Part I
We
begin our tour of the airport in the northwestern-most quadrant, in what
used to be the heart of the meat hauler / carnicero business, the
installations of Frigorífico Reyes.
Frigorífico Reyes
or
Fri Reyes was one of the largest and more successful
cargo operations in Bolivia, they owned, leased or imported at least 30
different airframes, they had plenty of write-offs though few
fatalities, with time they traded out most of their aircraft and finally
ended up storing some nine aircraft when they closed their doors in
1994. Of the stored frames three T-29s were irregularly scrapped, one
has been fully preserved in Cochabamba and four aircraft remain in El
Alto.
Aircraft historically allocated to this company:
|
B-17 |
C-131 |
T-29 |
CV-340 |
CV-440 |
Martin 404 |
C-46 |
C-47 |
C-54 |
DC-6 |
|
3 |
1 |
9 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
3 |
CP-1433. -
This aircraft is
a Convair VT-29D, construction number 52-42/450, USAF registration 53-33496 (as visible in the photographs
above) other sources
list the American serial only as "53-3496". The aircraft entered service in 1955 and by
February 1975 it was stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
It was one of the last T-29’s purchased by Fri Reyes, and its
incorporation date is listed as July 31st, 1978.
Unfortunately I lack any operational photos of this aircraft though it
was only stored by 1988.
DGAC file number would
have been #905, but I don't have any further information on its Bolivian
identity.
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