World Wide Airways was formed in 1945 by Don McVicar, one of the leading aviation figures in Canada. Much of his flying was to bring C-47s to Canadair for conversion into passenger aircraft. With the building of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) and Mid-Canada Lines, World Wide Airways became a major charter and cargo service for the various sites, flying a mixed fleet of C-47s, C-46s, and Super Constellations. World Wide Airways stopped operations in 1965 when its operating certificate was cancelled by the ATB. The aircraft depicted, CF-IQQ, worked the DEW Line project throughout the 1950s and after its World Wide Airways service it continued to fly in South America and the Caribbean with various other carriers.
The Decals
This sheet is designed for the Platz 1/144 C-46 kit, although for those of you with the Williams Bros. kit, you can get this same sheet scaled in 1/72 as well. This is a straightforward livery, consisting of a white fuselage top, green cheatline, and a red tail. The decal sheet provides everything needed except the red tail, leaving that up to you to paint. You also have to paint the stabilizer and wing tips in red as well. You will have to use the window decals and stenciling from the Platz kit. The propellers are the only things that need to be changed, as this plane flew with three-bladed props and the kit comes with four-bladed ones.
With the limited run status of the Platz kit there will not be many aftermarket decal sheets released for it, which makes Alps-printed decals all that much more appealing. This sheet provides an interesting subject for an interesting aircraft.
My thanks to Whiskey Jack for the review sample. For ordering information and other great decals of Canadian subjects, visit their website.