Four splutters, clouds of blue smoke and the recognisable roar of vintage aircraft engines cut through the still air of a frozen wilderness.

Astonishingly, 60 years on from its purchase, Cathay Pacific’s very first DC-6B continues to fly today – ferrying cargo around Alaska for Everts Air Cargo. They built them tough in those days. The plane’s ruggedness makes it ideal for the temporary and gravel runways dotted around the vast northern American state. But it was also the ideal aircraft to negotiate a very different environment in the 1950s.

Cathay Pacific Airways was 10 years old and under mounting pressure to start making money for its owner, Swire. Its directors decided to increase their investment – and gain some face in the Asian market – by upgrading its small fleet of propeller-powered twin engine DC-3s and four engine DC-4s. Chairman Jock Swire went about raising the necessary capital for the bigger, newer DC-6.