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"The Short-lived SwissAir Curtiss Condor of
1934"
by Loisl
A SwissAir Curtiss T-32 Condor awaits the final boarding of the "rich and famous" who have clearly arrived in regal splendor in their beautiful touring car. Swissair owned only one AT-32, and that was briefly. It was the first airliner in Europe to have a Stewardess onboard, but sadly the airliner met a tragic end shortly after beginning service in March of 1934, when it crashed killing all on board.
The Curtiss T-32 Condor set a new standard for airline safety and passenger comfort in the early 1930s. This large aircraft was developed from an U.S. Army Air Corp. bomber design. In the U.S., American Airways equipped several Condors with sleeping bunks (and even offered a special honeymoon suite). The Condor was quickly eclipsed by the introduction of more modern airliners such as the Douglas DC-2, DC-3 and the Boeing Model 247D.
T-32 Condor (American Airways)
The Curtiss T-32 Condor II, also known as the Curtiss-Wright CW-4, biplane airliner was even more of an anachronism than its namesake, the Condor 18 of four years earlier. Its only concession was the landing gear, its main units retracting into the engine nacelles. A two-bay biplane of mixed construction, with a wire braced single fin and rudder assembly, the T-32 prototype made its maiden flight on 30 January, 1933. Layout for most of the production batch of 21 aircraft that followed was as a luxury 12-passenger night sleeper airliner, and a number of T-32s flew with Eastern Air Transport and American Airways during the following three years of regular night service.
Two modified T-32s were commission by the U.S. Army as transports and operated until 1938 under the designation YC-30. One Condor was finished with extra fuel tanks as a long-range version for use by the 1933 Byrd Antarctic Expedition. It was equipped with twin-floats, skis, or a fixed landing gear.
Curtiss R4C-1Ten T-32 were ultimately converted to AT-32 standards and these were designated T-32C. Four T-32s operated under British civil registrations. At the outbreak of World War II these were impressed into the RAF and flown as light transports.
Many other variants of the T-32 existed. The AT-32 differed from the T-32 in having variable-pitch propellers and full NACA cowling, in lieu to the T-32's Townsend rings. The AT-32D was developed as a 15-passenger day airliner. Two AT-32E aircraft were built for the U.S. Navy and operated under the designation R4C-1 by the Navy and Marines as 12-passenger deluxe transports. Both were used by the U.S. Antarctic Survey and were finally forced to be abandoned in the Antarctic in 1941. Eight examples of the BT-32 were finish as a bomber variant and equipped to have five .303 caliber machine guns, two in manual operated turrets in the nose and above the rear fuselage, two in lateral fuselage ports and one in a ventral port. The prototype T-32 was sold to China and three aircraft were re-equipped with floats and sold to Colombia, with four more land variants sold to Peru. Finally there was the CT-32, which was built as a military cargo version with a large-loading door in the starboard rear fuselage, all three being sold to Argentina.
The Car?
I'm not sure of my vintage automobiles, but I think that the painting shows a Rolls-Royce Phantom II Convertible, c.1933. If anyone knows more precisely, please let me know.
2002 Wings Publishing
