Matson Navigation Company, a steam ship company, had financial interest in Pan Amer- ican Airways until 1941. In 1943 Matson formed an Air Transport Division to acquire Navy
maintenance and overhaul contracts. In September 1944 Matson received a maintenance con- tract for the Navy R5D version of the C-54. When the war ended Matson Air Transport had more than 700 employees at its Oakland base. The company began converting military C-54s to civilian DC-4s for Northwest, California Eastern, Chicago & Southern, Alaska Airlines, Transocean, and many others. The overhaul and engineering service placed Matson in the posi- tion to become involved with Veterans Air Express.
The steamship company was planning an airline operation until interrupted by the war in 1941. Matson Airlines was eventually formed in 1946 beginning service in July with two DC-4s on a “For Hire” basis. It had no fixed destinations but operated primarily between the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii. The concept was a luxury air service combined with ship travel. Matson filed an application with the CAB, which was never granted. The carrier operated the Hawaii service for two years until forced to drop it after CAB granted United and Northwest route authority.2 The Matson DC-4 N58003 that later became Carvair five operated glamorous charters transporting fashion models to Paris. It also transported not so glamorous immigrants from Puerto Rico to New York. The immigrant flights were described as a miserable business with the Skymasters overcrowded and overloaded beyond limits. The aircraft were grossly abused and eventually sold. In 1956 Matson reviewed the purchase of Transocean, which it had main- tained a relationship with for years converting the carriers DC-4s to civilian use.
Matson operated an outstanding maintenance program but one specific incident stands out that has been a point of controversy for many years. After conversion by Matson Air Trans- port Division back to passenger configuration the Veterans DC-4 registered N57777 was rumored to have been involved in a rather nefarious incident. Because of a clerical error during the Vet- erans Air Express bankruptcy and subsequent Matson acquisition many records and publica- tions indicated DC-4 c/n 10365 (later Carvair five) was registered as N57777. In fact this aircraft was never registered as N57777. A search of FAA records indicates Matson Navigation Com- pany purchased the aircraft in 1948 and the registration of N58003 was transferred to Matson. The registration of N57777 was the other Veterans DC-4 c/n 3077 also acquired by Matson from the bankruptcy court at the same time.3
The airline division of Matson had grand plans for U.S. Mainland to Hawaii service, how- ever a contested CAB ruling, political circumstance, and maintenance problems soon proved otherwise. Public records are not clear and have considerable discrepancies leading to confu- sion as to the registration and disposition of Skymaster c/n 10365 during ownership with Mat- son Navigation Company. Many publications and records indicate that Matson DC-4 c/n 10365 was registered N57777 between November 1948 and 03 February 1949. The same sources also show Skymaster c/n 3077 registered as N57777 from 22 May 1946 to 05 January 1949.4This indi- cates that both aircraft were N57777 between November 1948 and February 1949, which in actuality is not true. This single clerical error even fostered the idea that the registration was swapped from one aircraft to the other in a late night slight of hand because of a serious main- tenance incident. In an unrelated but very strange coincidence DC-4 c/n 3077 was eventually purchased by Cecil Wroten and was abandoned at Phnom Penh in 1975 along with Carvair nine- teen (N33AC) and DC-4 N32AC.
The maintenance incident occurred with one of the three Matson Skymasters. On a night departure out of San Francisco the DC-4 had climbed to 10,000 feet. Legendary aviator and writer Captain Ernest Gann commanded the flight. He related the incident in detail in his book Fate
Is the Hunter. The crew that night included F/O Drake, Second Officer Hayes as reserve pilot,
Engineer L.E. Snow, and a radio operator.
After leveling off the engineer made the power settings for the cruising speed. Within a few minutes the Number One engine backfired. Engineer Snow pushed the control to full rich. The other three engines began to sputter and backfire. The engineer moved all of them to full rich. The fuel flow needles began bouncing off the pegs and the boost pumps had no effect. The
crew believed there was air trapped in the fuel lines and after a few minutes the engineer moved the levers back to cruise. The Skymaster smoothed out for several minutes then the Number One engine quit causing the aircraft to dip to the left. At that same moment the other three engines also quit. There was dead silence as the crew began emergency procedures. The engi- neer managed to get the engines started one by one only at full power settings.5
Fog was rapidly moving into San Francisco as the DC-4 turned back for an emergency landing at Oakland with all engines at max power. Captain Gann prepared for a landing at 220 miles per hour without any known procedures. The crew tried throttling back a single engine and each time it would begin backfiring and losing power. This continued down to 4000 feet where each engine began performing normally. The landing at Oakland was performed as if there had been no problem just 54 minutes after departing San Francisco.6
A team of mechanics met the flight and after the passengers were moved into the termi- nal ran up the engines. After the problem could not be duplicated Gann insisted on a test flight. Gann, Drake, Snow and a mechanic took the DC-4 to 10,000 feet and leveled off while Snow set the engines as he had previously done. As he brought the mixture back all the engines back- fired and quit. They went through the same experience again. The mechanic, who had been skep- tical, was convinced. The next morning Gann and legendary Chief Pilot E.L. Sloniger made another test flight with the same results. The fuel tanks were then drained and checked for con- tamination. Two days later the DC-4 was taken up and the engines quit again.7
Technicians pointed out that this was the only Matson DC-4 with P & W R2000-13 engines. The -13 is more powerful, allowing faster climb and better cruising speed. Unfortunately they tend to starve for fuel when mounted on the early C-54A wing because of the plumbing of the fuel sys- tem. After review the engineers pointed out that the -13 engines should be run 30 minutes in full rich mixture after leveling off at cruising altitude and Gann had only waited about 3 minutes. Gann stated that would waste fuel and suggested another test flight. They took the DC-4 with sev- eral technicians up to 10,000 feet and waited 30 minutes. The mixture controls were eased back and the aircraft engines ran smoothly. The technicians got rather smug with Captain Gann when suddenly all four engines quit. They were descending at 800 feet per minute and Gann did not get the engines re-started until 3000 feet. Everyone was convinced and the DC-4 was grounded.8 The Skymaster originally had the P & W R-2000-7 engines and was recently re-fitted with the -13 engines. After the -7 engines were re-installed the problem did not re-occur. The fuel line plumbing was apparently the culprit. Although the DC-4 in this incident was not converted to Carvair standards, other DC-4s with similar fuel line routings were and presented problems. This is reviewed in depth in the Engineering section of the Carvair.
Engineers at Aviation Traders noted that all DC-4s converted to Carvair standards had the fuel lines in a mixed variety of front and rear spar configurations. The lines, valves, and fittings were not mounted in a uniform system. The fuel line plumbing was changed and standardized on all Carvair conversion and they were all fitted with the R-2000-7M2 engines.
The story of unscrupulous switching of registrations was told for 40 years to justify incor- rect accounts from many sources that two Matson DC-4s held the same registration of N57777. A search of FAA records found that only one DC-4 was registered N57777 and the registration was recorded on the wrong form during the Veterans Air Express bankruptcy. The other Mat- son Skymaster c/n 10365, originally a C-54 converted to a R5D for the U.S. Navy, became Car- vair five. In all probability the DC-4 actually involved in the incident was a third ship, N50787 c/n 10278, which was later destroyed by fire when, refueling in Spain in 1961.