It was built for the Standard Oil Development Co of New York and registered as NC21735. This was later changed to N21735.
It was sold and re-registered as N10Y in 1947 to Roy Collins of Collins Construction Co of Kansas City. About this time it was converted to a Lockheed 10E
It was imported to New Zealand in 1958 and ferried in via New Mexico, Central and South America (Brazil), Africa, India, Malaya, Australia and Norfolk Island.
Trans Island Airways Ltd of Christchurch took it on charge as ZK-BUT on 14-10-1957 and named it 'Spirit of Tasman Bay'.
It operated the Christchurch to Oamaru route but its life was short lived as it was ground looped at Harewood on 18th of February 1959 and did not fly again.
Its registration was cancelled on 22-12-1959. It was used for fire training between 1965 and 1967 and could be seen on the western side of Christchurch airport from the terminal building and often appears in the background of period photographs.
It was moved to MoTaT in Auckland in 1968 where it is now on display fitted with Harvard R-1340 engines and painted to represent L10a ZK-AFD in its Union Airways scheme.
The above photograph was taken at Norfolk Island and was dated as circa 1960. I suspect December 1957 may be closer to the mark. It was kindly supplied by Dave Eyre of Australia.
There is a good shot of her at Christchurch on the following link:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/7881270260/
There are also numerous views of it as ZK-AFD (alias ZK-BUT) at MoTaT on GOOGLE....
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