N434TA (cn 44434/515) is a DC-6BF/ST, ST for 'Swing Tail'.
Life started normally enough for c/n 44434, with Western Air Lines in October 1954 as DC-6B N91310. The Los Angeles Dodgers bought her in February 1961 and reregistered her as N180R in December that same year. Through Air Carrier Service Corporation in oct.1963 she went to Colombia as HK-1029, and was operated by Taxader Colombia from December 1963 until August 1965 when she came back to the US. Registered as N12810 for Trans-Am Aeronautical. Later that same month Charlotte Aircraft Corporation took over operation and moved her to Europe, where she was bought by Spantax under the registration EC-BBK. In Belgium she was converted to the Swing Tail freighter configuration. Aero Uranus bought her in July 1975, though Zia Equipment registered as her owner that same month and put tail number N434TA on her. Zantop International Airlines then registered as the lease operator. All of this happening in July 1975. Northern Air Cargo purchased her and moved her to Alaska in March 1987. Northern Air Cargo decided to cease operating their DC-6's and put them up for sale in September 2008. Buffalo Airways purchased her in June 2013 as a Bank of Utah trustee in order to keep her US registration. She was moved to Hay River in June 2013 where she still sits in storage and has not flown since her arrival.
There were a total of two DC-6 aircraft converted to the swing tail configuration. N434TA is the only surviving DC-6 Swing Tail. The other, N867TA, also having been owned by Northern Air Cargo, crashed September 26, 2001 in Alaska. The tail was salvaged and is belived to have been included in the deal to purchase N434TA by Buffalo Airways. Though I have not been able to confirm that information.
You must own the PMDG DC-6 for this livery to load. You can purchase the plane here: PMDG.com/DC-6
Unfortunately, since only two DC-6's were ever converted to a swing tail cargo plane, the hinges are not present on this model, nor does the tail actually swing open. That would be amazing!
New release. v1.1
This version will replace v1.0. I recommend deleting the previous file from your community folder prior to downloading these files to prevent any conflicts that could result in bad sim behaviour. i.e. not loading either livery.
This release not only adds the correct livery with grey painted belly, but I have also made some slight corrections to the unpainted livery. It appears that at some point the tail tip had been replaced and was never painted. This has been modeled correctly in both liveries. I had attempted to create shading to represent the large swing tail hinges, but was unsuccessful. They looked horrible so I discontinued that endeavour until 3D modelling is completed. Which, in my estimation will be . . . never.
Download the .rar file and extract the folder. Inside that folder open the next folder in line to reveal two folders, "pmdg-dc6_N434TA_bare" and pmdg-dc6_N434TA_painted". Paste both folders into your community folder and fly.
Thank you for downloading. I hope you enjoy this livery.