The Tinker Belle arriving at the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo, Virginia on Saturday. The aircraft flew in from its previous owners facility in Monroe, North Carolina. (image by Justin Fortier via Military Aviation Museum)

The Military Aviation Museum achieved a significant milestone over the weekend with the arrival of their latest acquisition, Curtiss C-46F Commando 44-78774, better known as The Tinker Belle. After a significant effort by maintenance staff from the Fighter Factory and local personnel in Monroe, North Carolina, The Tinker Belle made the flight to her new home successfully on Saturday, arriving a little after 6pm. The museum stayed open a little later than usual so that visitors could witness the historic aircraft’s arrival. They held a small party afterwards, with a specially made cake bearing an image of the aircraft in the icing.

While in good overall condition, the aircraft had not flown in a couple of years, so her regular aircrew no longer had currency on type – neither did anyone else in the ‘lower 48’ either, since The Tinker Belle is the last flightworthy, US-based Commando outside of Alaska. Indeed, Everts Air Cargo of Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska is the last US operator of the type, with four active C-46s currently on their books. This presented a small problem in getting the aircraft to Virginia Beach, but thankfully, Everts was able to provide one of their highly experienced Commando pilots, Terry Galyean, for The Tinker Belle’s ferry flight from Monroe, North Carolina. The Military Aviation Museum’s chief pilot, Mike Spalding was in the right seat, while Al Lintz, the museum’s senior director of maintenance served as engineer/scanner for the flight.

Now that the aircraft is safely home, it will need to undergo a period of TLC before it can begin flying at Museum events and air shows further afield. Once the aircraft is ready, Museum pilots will then undergo type-rating training with help from Everts, although the team hasn’t yet decided whether that will take place in Alaska or Virginia yet. In the meantime, the C-46 will serve as a marvelous exhibit, helping retell the oft-overlooked story of the C-46 pilots and aircrew who flew often perilous missions “Over the Hump” to transport precious war materiel from India over the Himalayan mountain range to where it was desperately needed in China to combat the Japanese.