This is the third part of a four-part series on the four Catalina Air Transport planes that were appropriated by the U.S. Army early in World War II.
Today's "victim" was Douglas Dolphin NC14204, the flagship of the early Wilmington-Catalina Airline fleet. This was Chief Pilot Walter Seiler's favorite and was the most photographed of the airline's Dolphins. Roughly 9 out of 10 publicity photographs of the airline you will see feature NC14204 as the subject.
On September 1, 1942, Seiler ferried NC14204 to Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank where she was officially handed over to the Army.
On April 18, 1943, she was shipped from the U.S. to Australia where she spent a month with the Royal Australian Air Force's 1 SFTS (Service Flight Training School) and then sent to 1 OTU (Operational Training Unit).
On July 29, 1943, less than a year after leaving Catalina Island, the pride of the Wilmington-Catalina fleet crashed at Rose Bay, New South Wales. From there she was "converted to components".
