C 6 Aircraft

C 6 Aircraft - The C-5 modernization approach is proven. In three flights operating out of Dover AFB, Delaware, a joint U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin crew set 43 world aviation records, demonstrating the C-5M's ability to redefine global airlift.

In deployed airlift operations, the C-5M is demonstrating a new era of highly capable, reliable and affordable airlift. With departure reliability rates greater than 90 percent and payload increases of 20 percent over legacy C-5s, the Super Galaxy is delivering more to the warfighter on every mission.

C 6 Aircraft

With a substantial improvement in unrefueled range, the C-5M is overflying traditional en-route fuel stops, enabling a reduction in fuel consumption by as much as 20 percent. This is the OEM difference. I was told the Olympic had a steel tube inner fuse structure for the faint of heart who were beginning to prefer metal to wood.

The Original Equipment Manufacturer Oem Difference - Proven Performance

The low-wing Alcor was classic Loughead = all-wood monocoque with strength to weight ratio = mild steel verified by Richard Von Hake. The Lodestar was similar in layout to most Lockheed transport aircraft of the inter-war years.

It had low mounted tapered wings, with a moderate dihedral. The fuselage had flat sides, and a rather more pointed nose than earlier models. It had a high mounted tail, with twin vertical control surfaces at the ends.

The standard version had a row of small cockpit windows on both sides, and a cabin door towards the rear of the left side of the aircraft. Their first aircraft was the Olympic Duo-4, and its fuselage was similar to the Lockheed Vega 5. In place of the Vega's single radial engine were two Menasco C4 Pirate engines.

These in-line, four-cylinder engines were air-cooled and produced 125 hp (92 kW). The engines were positioned in the nose of the Duo-4 so that the tips of the propellers cleared each other by about 3 in (76 mm).

C-/ C- / C- / C- / C- - Lockheed Model Lodestar

The engines were laid on their sides so that their heads were close together and the crankshafts were farthest apart and canted out at a slight angle. The Duo-4's engine arrangement had less air resistance than a normal twin-engine plane.

In addition, when one engine was shut down, the Duo-4 behaved much like a single-engine aircraft. Lockheed built more C-60As for the AAF (325) than any other version of the military Lodestar. Soon after the war began, the need for air evacuation was met by the peacetime practice of using regular transports.

The first occasion requiring the movement by air of large numbers of patients occurred in January 1942 during the construction of the Alcan Highway to Alaska. The second occurred in Burma in April 1942. In both instances regular transport planes (C-47s) already equipped with litter brackets were pressed into ambulance service.

In February 1937, Allan started a new aviation company: the Alcor Aircraft Corporation. The "Alcor" came from Allan Lockheed Corporation. Alcor's first official aircraft (the Duo-6 had been built before the company was formed) was the C-6-1 Junior Transport.

It was designed to carry six to eight passengers. The C-6-1 used the engine installation of the Duo but with improved C6S-4 Super Buccaneer engines that produced 275 hp (205 kW) at 2,400 rpm for takeoff.

Each engine was canted out 4 degrees and the propellers cleared each other by 12 in (0.3 m). Converted from a Super Electra, it differed primarily by having the fuselage lengthened by 1.68m to provide accommodation for 15 to 18 passengers, depending upon the other facilities provided;

some were produced with high-density bench seating for a maximum of 26 passengers, and were available with a variety of engines by Pratt & Whitney and Wright. Despite the improved economy demonstrated by the Lodestar, Lockheed failed again to achieve worthwhile sales in the United States as most operators were committed to purchasing DC-3s from the Douglas Company.

Fortunately, the type appealed more to export customers, with airlines or government agencies in Africa, Brazil, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, the UK and Venezuela ordering a total of 96 aircraft. Sources: – Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1932 by C.G.

Grey – Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1934 by C.G. Grey – Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938 by C.G. Gray and Leonard Bridgman – Lockheed Aircraft since 1913 by Rene J. Francillon (1982/1987) – “Commercial Aviation: An American Feeder-Line Machine,” Flight 6 July 1934

– "A 'Flat' Engined Transport," Flight 12 May 1938 – http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/HornDavid/9336.htm – http://www.aerofiles.com/_al.html – Brief Allan Lockheed 1910-1942 Autobiography – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Loughhead In October 1934, the United States placed operating restrictions on single-engine transports carrying passengers. This regulation marked a permanent shift to multi-engine transports for passenger service.

Presumably, the twin-engine Duo would have done well under the new regulations with its ability to perform like a conventional single-engine aircraft in the event of one engine being shut down. Unfortunately, the Duo-6 crashed in late 1935 and was not repaired.

The aircraft had a low-wing, and the main gear retracted back into the wing with the wheels turning 90 degrees to lay flat. The wings and fuselage had a structure made mostly of wood. However, there were some components in high-stress areas that were made of metal.

The fuselage had a circular section and was made up of laminated spruce framework with a two-piece plywood skin that was molded under pressure. The engines were closely cowled and faired into the nose and wing.

The C-6-1 was a streamlined aircraft that was very efficient and had excellent flight characteristics. The four to six passenger Duo-4 was a high-wing cantilever monoplane. The monocoque fuselage had a wooden structure and was covered with a plywood skin that was molded under pressure.

The wings also had a wooden structure and were covered with plywood. The aircraft (registered as NX962Y) was first flown by Frank Clarke in 1930. In March 1931, the Duo-4 was damaged when a sudden gust of wind caused it to nose-over and then collide with a vehicle during a landing at Muroc (

now Edwards Air Force Base), California. Unfortunately, this incident caused investors to back away from the Lockheed Brothers Aircraft Corporation, and funds were not available to quickly repair the Duo-4. Great to hear from you! I'm very glad you found the article and that it earned your stamp of approval.

And thank you very much for the great additional information. I did not know the twin recovered by itself and continued to fly; what a shame there was no one onboard to land it. There were quite a number of warplanes based on the Clarence Kelly Johnson-designed Lockheed Electra and the later Model 18 Lodestar.

The C-60 is a twin-engine transport based on the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar, the Lockheed equivalent of the DC-3. Lockheed 10/14/18 were twin-engine monoplanes - the L 10 (Electra) carrying 10 passengers at 200 mph in 1934;

the 14 (Super Electra) carried 12 passengers at 240 mph in 1937; the 18 (Lodestar) carried 14 passengers at 225 mph in 1939. The resulting aircraft was a twin-engined, all-metal, twin-tailed, mid-wing monoplane with the main landing gear retracting into the engine nacelles.

The tail wheel did not retract. As with the Model 14, the aircraft was equipped with leading-edge slots and Fowler flaps. The trend of aircraft design is seen in the high wing loadings of 31.76 and 33.5 lb./sq.

ft. for the two loaded weights. To retain the moderate landing speed of 65 mph is only possible with the very efficient Fowler flaps. Tony Stadlman told me how Dad tricked the shell parts from the Olympic to comply with a round and larger fuse.

Tony told him you could not use the skins from 3 smaller oranges to fit over a bigger orange. Dad told him you could within limits, did it, and Tony agreed it worked perfectly. The circular fuse was planned for mild pressurization.

Hell, the perfect bonding of the Lockheed patent process with spruce laminae would have handled it easily. There are also drawings of the planned Alcor C6-2, which would have packaged 2 of the proposed Menasco V-12's in place of the I6's.

The C6-1 exceeded 400 MPH in the power dive from which it recovered and flew graceful circles over Oakland Bay–without its witless pilots! So, the uprated performance with V-12's would have been incredible. In mid-1942, Lockheed introduced the C-60 variant of the "Lodestar".

Designed specifically for military use, the C-60 was used as a troop and cargo carrier, flew anti-submarine patrols, and performed Search and Rescue duties. A total of 21 more C-60 and 325 C-60A were delivered. One of the last was the C-60B with an experimental de-icing system with hot air.

The only aircraft model 18-10 with engines R-1830-53 with a power of 1200 hp. (895 kW) and 11 passenger seats was purchased in 1942 under the designation C-66 as VIP transport for the president of Brazil.

Expressing irritation with failure to equip transport planes with litter supports, the AAF Directorate of Military Requirements called upon the Materiel Command for a report. In reply that Command summarized the situation. All C-47s were completely equipped with litter supports during production.

While a shortage of critical materials had prevented installation in the first twenty-four C-46s delivered, all others would come equipped. Beginning in December 1942, all C-53s would be provided with litter brackets by manufacturers. Meanwhile, the Air Forces would install them in 200 planes of that type already delivered.

Beginning in January 1943, supports for ten litters would be placed in each C-60. Finally, all new types of transport would be equipped with litter supports when deliveries began. Interest of US military to "Lodestar" manifested itself for the first time in 1940, when the US Navy ordered one XR5O-1 and two R5O-1.

Similar aircraft were delivered to the US Coast Guard. They were equipped with Wright R-1870 engines. 12 R5O-4, 41 R5O-5 and 35 R5O-6 were built. The first two options were, respectively, a 4-7-seat administrative and 12-14-passenger passenger transport aircraft.

The third option was an 18-seat military transport aircraft used by the Marine Corps for parachuting operations. Equipped with engines Pratt & Whitney R-1830, one R5O-2 and three R5O-3 were built for the US Navy. After the war, many military Lodestars were declared surplus and sold to private operators for use as cargo or executive transports.

In 1957, the first fire jump for the California Smokejumpers was made out of a Lockheed Lodestar. The Lockheed Lodestar was powered by two 9-cylinder radial air-cooled engines providing a top cruise speed of 207 knots and a range of 1650 miles.

Originally designed for commercial flights, the Lodestar was frequently flown by the Air Force in the 1940s. After the war, the Lodestar returned to civilian service and eventually found its way into the Smokejumper program. The C-6-1 (registered as NX15544) was first flown on 6 March 1938. On a test flight over San Francisco Bay on 27 June 1938, the C-6-1 went out of control during a high-speed dive.

The dive test was instigated by the pilot and not part of the flight schedule. Unable to regain control, the pilot and observer bailed out, leaving the sleek C-6-1 to crash into the bay. The aircraft was insured, but the funds were only sufficient to pay off Alcor's debts.

With no capitol, Allan closed out Alcor. Allan continued to be involved in aviation for the rest of his life, but he did not build any further aircraft of his own design. Over the next few years, the Duo-4 was slowly repaired and modified.

The four-cylinder Pirate engines were replaced by six-cylinder Menasco B6S Buccaneer engines. The supercharged, 230 hp (171 kW) Buccaneers were in-line, air-cooled engines and turned 7 ft 6 in metal propellers. After the modifications, the aircraft was renamed the Duo-6 (some sources refer to it as the Loughead Alcor).

It flew again in early 1934. The Model 18 was developed because of problems with its predecessor, the Model 14 Super Electra (designated PBO and R4O in USN service). The first commercial operator of the Model 14 was Northwest Airlines which purchased eleven aircraft.

Three of these aircraft crashed between May 1938 and January 1939 causing the flying public to lose confidence in the aircraft and Northwest returned the Model 14s to Lockheed and purchased the slower Douglas DC-3 (R4D in USN service) in March 1939. During the same

period, five Model 14s crashed outside the U.S., one each in Canada, England and the Netherlands and two in Romania. Recognizing that it had a big problem, Lockheed began work on a replacement for the Model 14.

Even though the Duo-4 and Duo-6 were built under the Lockheed Brothers Aircraft Corporation name, they are often referred to as the Alcor Duo-4 and Alcor Duo-6. In addition, the Alcor C-6-1 is often incorrectly referred to as the Lockheed Alcor.

The Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar first flew in September 1939 [1940?], the Model 18 was originally designed as a successor to the Lockheed Model 14 and the earlier Model 10 Electra. The Army began ordering military versions of the Model 18 in May 1941. The Lodestar was offered with the Pratt & Whitney Hornet, Twin Wasp or Wright Cyclone engines and with various interior configurations.

Depending upon engines and interior configuration, these transports were given C-56, C-57, C-59, C-60 or C-66 basic type designations. The Duo-4 and Duo-6 had a 42 ft (12.80 m) wingspan and were 28 ft 6 in (8.69 m) in length.

The Duo-4 had an empty weight of 2,265 lb (1,027 kg). The aircraft had a maximum speed of 140 mph (225 km/h) and a landing speed of 47 mph (76 km/h). The Duo-6 had an empty weight of 2,885 lb (1,309 kg) and a gross weight of 5,090 lb (2,309 kg).

The aircraft had a max speed of 183 mph (295 km/h), a cruise speed of 157 mph (253 km/h), and a landing speed of 57 mph (92 km/h). The service ceiling was 18,500 ft (5,639 m) and its range was 660 mi (1,062 km).

The single engine performance of the Duo-6 was a max speed of 125 mph (201 km/h), a cruise speed of 100 mph (161 km/h), and a ceiling of 6,400 ft (1,951 m). The Junior Transport had a wingspan of 49 ft (14.94 m) and a length of 31 ft 8 in (9.65 m).

The aircraft had an empty weight of 4,141 lb (1,878 kg) and a gross weight of 6,200 lb (2,812 kg). The aircraft had a max speed of 211 mph (340 km/h) at 5,500 ft (1,676 m) and a cruise speed of 190 mph (306 km/h) at 5,500 ft (1,676 m) and 200 mph (322 km/h

) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m). The service ceiling was 24,000 ft (7,315 m) and its range was 835 mi (1,344 km). On one engine, the C-6-1 had a top speed of 147 mph (237 km/h), could cruise at 129 mph (208 km/h), and had a ceiling of 12,600 ft (3,840 m).

Since its inception, the C-5 has been a critical instrument of national policy. From the defense of Israel in the Yom Kippur war, to the air bridge supporting coalition forces in Desert Storm, the C-5 delivers unmatched capability to carry enormous loads over global distances.

In late 1941, when America entered the war, all "Lodestars" flying with the United States military were former airliners conscripted into service. These aircraft received different numerical designations depending on engine type. Most of the aircraft were removed from the US domestic service by December 1941, when they received a designation of a series of C-56: respectively, one C-56A, 13C-56B, 12C-56C, seven C-56D and two C

-56E. A total of 10 Model 18-07 and 15 Model 18-56 were designated respectively C-59 and C-60. The US Army Air Corps ordered one aircraft with Wright R-1820-29 engines in May 1941 under the designation C-56.

It was a military version of the Civil Model 18-50. After some time, three aircraft were ordered Model 18-14 with engines Pratt & Whitney R-1830-53. In addition, orders for seven and three cars were made. Accordingly, all 13 vehicles were designated as C-57.

The requisitioned civilian aircraft received the designation C-57A, seven military transport aircraft were known as the C-57B, and three of the latest C-60A aircraft were converted to Pratt & Whitney R-1830-43 star engines and designated C-57C

. One of these three aircraft was the C-57D, later equipped with R-1830-92 engines. I had understood that the Alcor engines (there is a drawing I have somewhere) were canted out 6 deg's each, included angle = 12 deg's.

That looks to be more extreme than reality. I like the 3.5 deg's/each better – don't know… In response to an escalating number of transport aircraft crashes in the mid-1940s, in the 1950s researchers at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory undertook a decade-long investigation into a number of issues surrounding low-altitude aircraft

crashes. The tests were conducted at the Ravenna Arsenal, approximately 60 miles south of the Lewis laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. The aircraft were excess military transports from World War II. The nine-crash initial phase of testing used Lockheed C-56 Lodestar and C-82 transport aircraft to identify potential ignition sources and analyze the spread of flammable materials.

@media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px) { #ga-ad {display: none;} } In 1929, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation was bought by the Detroit Aircraft Corporation. Lockheed's founder, Allan H. Loughead (phonetically pronounced Lockheed) was unhappy with the acquisition and had voted against it.

Allan left and formed a new company in 1930 with his brother Malcolm. The pair had worked together in aviation before pursuing separate interests in the 1920s. The new company was known as the Lockheed Brothers Aircraft Corporation.

The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra, and the Model 18 Lodestar proved to be extremely capable planes with among the best cruising speeds, ranges and altitude performance, besting that of its rival, the Douglas DC-3. The U.S.

Congress passed the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, which created the Civil Aeronautics Board, and in March 1939, National Airlines was issued its original certificate of convenience and necessity authorizing the carriage of mail, passengers, and property over its system.

The airline received the first of its 14-passenger Lockheed Lodestars in November 1940. During its delivery the plane set a transcontinental record of 9 hours and 29 minutes, which held for more than 15 years. Hi Bill, Great to run across your footprints and fine work here, after Reno.

The work you have done with the Olympic Duo cum Alcor is excellent, and also great to see Pancho Barnes with the Duo. Turns out Dad retained her to fly tests at Muroc of the Vega 5c, last and most upgraded version.

Allan Loughead officially changed his name to Allan Lockheed in February 1934. Also in 1934, the Lockheed Brothers Aircraft Corporation went out of business, but Allan continued with the Duo-6. In May 1934, one propeller was removed to demonstrate the Duo-6's single engine performance.

At Mines Field (now Los Angeles International Airport), the Duo-6 took off in 1,200 ft (366 m) and reached 130 mph (209 km/h) on just one engine. Reportedly, with one engine shut down, the aircraft handled with little yaw, much like a single-engine plane.

In May, Allan flew the Duo-6 back east to demonstrate it to the Navy and Army. However, nothing came from this exposure.

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C1a Aircraft

C1a Aircraft - A military variant of the Boeing 757, believed to be used by the Air Branch for the covert insertion and extraction of personnel, C-32Bs have been spotted making fast turnarounds at airports during various crises around the globe.

It's believed that in February 2004 a C-32B was used to covertly fly Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the deposed President Of Haiti, into exile in Africa. This jet, which masquerades as a private business flight, is suspected of being used by the CIA for the covert movement of terror suspects.

C1a Aircraft

These so-called 'rendition flights' caused controversy when they came to light in 2004. Several Twin Otters are believed to be in Air Branch's inventory. These twin-engine light aircraft are ideal transports for small SAD/SF teams due to their ability to land and take off from short, rough airstrips.

Boeing C-B

DHC-6 aircraft with non-standard antenna arrays have been spotted in Afghanistan. These antennas indicate secure communications capability and a possible SIGINT fitment. An aircraft carrier is often called a "city at sea," and keeping a floating platform that is in constant motion resupplied is a logistical challenge.

While underway replenishment provides fuel, ordnance, food and other bulk items, the aircraft assigned to the Carrier On-board Delivery mission, known to all as the COD, play an important role delivering passengers, cargo, and most importantly mail to deployed flattops.

C-1As were the last piston engine aircraft operated on board U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and during their twilight years were something of a novelty. "The Navy's oldest airplane, described as the dinosaur of the Navy's air arm, and a gasoline-guzzling puddle jumper with the creature comforts of an outhouse, continues to be the most beloved by thousands of sailors in the fleet," one newspaper reporter noted

in an article about the C-1A in 1984, reflecting the airplane's role in delivering mail to those deployed. The last C-1A retired from its duties on board the training carrier Lexington (AVT 16) on September 27, 1988.

Dassault Falcon

This unmanned spy drone is used by the CIA Special Operations Group for both surveillance and strike missions. A remarkable bit of kit, a Predator in the air above Afghanistan can be flown by an operator in Langley, USA via secure satellite remote control.

A set of sensors in a turret under its chin provide its surveillance capability while a laser-designator and 2 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles give it teeth. CIA Predators have carried out strikes against suspected terrorists on several occasions.

COD operations began during the Korean War with the modification of World War II-era TBM Avengers for the mission. Humorously, Transport Squadron (VR) 24 adopted as the centerpiece of their insignia a code to reflect their role.

However, a modified torpedo-bomber was at best a temporary platform and following the successful introduction of the S2F Tracker antisubmarine warfare aircraft, the Navy looked to this platform as a possible carrier on-board delivery airplane. The elite pilots of SAD Air Branch, many recruited from AFSOC and the 160th SOAR, as well as civilian aviation companies, are tasked with flying everything from small light aircraft to large transport planes.

Dhc- Twin Otter

Roles of Air Branch include: The CIA often uses Russian-built helicopters, such as MI-8/MI-17s, for covert operations. As these ubiquitous helicopters are usually commonplace in theater they create less attention than a tricked-out Black Hawk or MH-53 Pavelow and cannot be readily linked to US forces.

These helos are cheap to run and easier to find spare parts for when operating outside the US military logistic chain. They are also one of the few military helicopters capable of operating over the mountains of Afghanistan.

CIA hips spotted in Iraq were equipped with various extra antennae (e.g. Bat-wing SATCOM) and countermeasures such as flare launchers and AN/ALQ-144 infrared jammers. Two Grumman C-1A Trader "Carrier Onboard Delivery" (COD) aircraft. These were the last piston-engined aircraft to serve aboard US Navy aircraft carriers.

According to Joe Baugher's serial number database (see link below), these aircraft are as follows: In recent times, the Air Branch has operated MI-8 and Mi-17 helicopters in support of special operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Me- Predator

In the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom, SAD helicopter flights inserted Ground Branch operatives and Army Special Forces into the country. Aside from ferrying SAD agents around the battlefield, they also acted as aerial surveillance platforms.

Fitted with thermal imaging devices, and carrying SAD photographers, CIA helicopters scoured the mountains, valleys and desert plains for Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. The Trader entered service in 1955 and operated from the Navy's flattops for the ensuing 33 years.

Among the missions they flew during their lengthy period of operations was flying support for ships engaged in the quarantine during the Cuban Missile Crisis and, during one 23-day stretch in 1969, simultaneously supporting six carriers operating off Vietnam moving over 200 passengers and 23,000 lb

. of cargo. In addition, Lieutenant Donna L. Spruill became the first female naval aviator to carrier qualify in a fixed-wing aircraft when she completed 10 traps in a C-1A Trader on board the carrier Independence (CV 62) on June 20, 1979.

Air Branch Roles

Manufacturer: Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation Dimensions: Length: 42 ft.; Height: 16 ft., 3 ½ in.; Wingspan: 69 ft., 8 in. Weights: Empty: 16,631 lb.; Gross: 24,600 lbs. Power Plant: Two 1,525 horsepower Wright R-1820-82WA engines Performance: Maximum Speed: 280 M.P.H.

at 4,000 ft.; Service ceiling: 24,800 ft.; Range: 1,110 miles Armament: None Crew: Two pilots and one aircrewman In Honduras, in 1985, CIA pilots flew Beechcraft King Air light aircraft modified with antennas and RF listening equipment, in support of signals intelligence (SIGINT) operations carried out by the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA).

(2) In the run up to Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, the aborted US operation to rescue American hostages from Tehran, the CIA were involved in an operation to recon the proposed desert staging area inside Iran.

2 CIA pilots, operating a CIA DH6 Twin Otter, flew a USAF Combat Controller (CCT) and his motorbike from Oman to the proposed staging area at Dasht-e-Kavir. Flying at night and below radar coverage, the CIA plane landed in the desert, delivering the CCT who surveyed and marked out a runway on the desert floor before being flown out again, all without being detected.

Mil Mi- / Mi- Hip

(1)

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C 46 Transport Aircraft

C 46 Transport Aircraft - Unfortunately, the C-55 was a raw, unfinished prototype. The only substantive change Curtiss had made after initial flight testing was to replace the original twin tail with the Commando's big vertical fin and rudder; Eddie Allen had complained about low-speed stability and single-engine handling.

The Air Corps sent the C-55 back to Buffalo with a long list of needed fixes and mods, but Hap Arnold's demand for the design resulted in an order for 200 of what would become the C-46.

C 46 Transport Aircraft

The C-46's four-blade Curtiss electric props were also a hazard. The electrical contacts corroded in humid India, and the props would suddenly overspeed. "It was SOP during takeoff for the copilot to have his fingers on the toggle switches of the override system in case the props overspeeded," former Commando pilot Don Downie wrote in his excellent book Flying the Hump.

C-46s eventually got three-blade Hamilton-Standard propellers, and one of the main reasons there are so few Commandos still flying is that those huge props are today so rare as to be essentially irreplaceable. Curtiss originally designed the C-46 to be a pressurized luxury airliner with enough range to fly the golden route between New York and Chicago non-stop and above most of the weather.

It would be a 24- to 36-seat "sub-stratosphere transport," the company's marketers optimistically predicted, with the option of being configured with crosswise sleeping berths. But it would never be pressurized, never be luxurious, never be a true airliner.

At best, hundreds of war-surplus Commandos were operated in the late 1940s and early 50s by startup nonscheduled cargo and passenger carriers. Having cost the government $313,500 each, C-46s were sold as surplus for as little as $5,000.

During World War II there was little debate as to what was desired of a transport aircraft: it was one that was equally useful for the delivery of either cargo or troops to their destination. However, the only aircraft specifically developed during the war for this purpose was the Fairchild/North American C-82 Packet that did not see service until after the war.

Meanwhile, great resourcefulness was displayed in meeting emergency demands using the aircraft and equipment that was readily available. Those aircraft, forming the backbone of the Army Air Force's (AAF) transport fleets, were the C-47, C-54 and the C-46.

The Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando was the military version of a yet unproven commercial transport. Like the C-47, it was a twin-engine monoplane but much larger and heavier with a maximum cargo capacity of 15,000 pounds against 10,000 for the C-47 and a passenger load capacity of 12,000 pounds against 6,500 for the C-47.

Accordingly, the Army Air Force (AAF) rested high hopes on its development but engineering difficulties so persisted that it did not get extensive use before 1944. Total acceptance reached only 3,144 airplanes by August 1945. The CW-20 prototype had a long aluminum fairing to hide the crease between the cabin and luggage compartment, but the extra metal weighed 275 pounds, added manufacturing complexity and did nothing aerodynamically.

It was quickly eighty-sixed, leaving the C-46's signature fuselage shape naked. Page was granted a design patent on the CW-20's configuration, much like Coca-Cola patenting the shape of its wasp-waisted bottle. It's unclear how Boeing circumvented the patent to create the double-bubble Model 377 Stratocruiser just five years later, although Boeing and Douglas designed the double-bubble 707 and DC-8 after the Curtiss patent had expired.

During WWII Hump operations, a C-46 notched its first air combat victory when Captain Wally Gayda stuck a Browning Automatic Rifle out his cockpit window and emptied the entire magazine at an attacking Nakajima Ki.43 Oscar.

Gayda hit the unsuspecting pilot, and the Oscar went down. During the Bay of Pigs operation, a C-46 scored the Commando's second "kill." Having dropped a load of doomed Cuban exile paratroopers, the transport was on its way back to the CIA's secret Guatemala base when it was attacked by one of Castro's Hawker Sea Furies.

Something went wrong, probably an overenthusiastic too-low, too-slow stall/spin, and the Hawker augured into the Caribbean, killing the pilot. WWII was far from the last of the C-46's wars. A number of Commandos became part of Chiang's Republic of China Air Force fighting Mao's Red Chinese, and several served with the French air force in Indochina, ultimately dropping supplies during the war-ending siege of Dien Bien Phu.

The Israeli Air Force flew Commandos during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, carrying license-built Messerschmitt Avia S-199 fighters from Czechoslovakia to Israel via South America and North Africa. C-46s were active in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and in Vietnam, where one C-46, carrying 152 Vietnamese from Saigon to Bangkok, was the last fixed-wing aircraft to leave South Vietnam before the country was overrun.

The Commando was finally retired from the USAF in 1968, although it's possible that Reserve units continued using a few C-46s until as late as 1972. The airplane was also a maintenance hog, largely because of its leaky hydraulic system.

On Hump trips, savvy crew chiefs would carry along a 55-gallon drum of hydraulic fluid to ensure they'd have enough to top off the system during the China turnaround. Among its many other nicknames, the Commando was thus dubbed Leaky Tiki.

Because Curtiss assumed so big an airplane would require powered controls, it had hydraulic systems running the ailerons, elevator and rudder, as well as the landing gear and flaps. The control-boost systems were eventually removed, and the C-46 turned out to fly just fine without them.

Although at least one C-46 Hump pilot said that being assigned to a C-47 trip "was like driving a sports car"—words of praise that perhaps had never before or since been applied to the Gooney Bird.

Altitude performance was the key to the C-46's major contribution to World War II: It was the only high-altitude, heavy-lift cargo aircraft available to cross the Himalayas on the famous China-Burma-India Theater “Hump” route, airlifting supplies to Chiang Kai-Shek's army after the Japanese closed the Burma Road.

C-47s did yeoman work crossing what Hump pilots called the Rockpile, and eventually the four-engine C-54 would become the favored airlifter when Japanese retreats opened a lower-altitude Hump route. However, C-46s did the brunt of the Hump-topping work during the prime years of the resupply route.

The importance of the transport plane to the operations of the AAF, whether as a carrier, troop transport or long-range cargo carrier, was illustrated by the growing number of these planes. In July 1939, the AAF had only 118 transports and on the eve of Pearl Harbor it had only 216. After that, the inventory rose steadily and by August 1944 the AAF had more than 10,000 transports on hand.

In the 1920s and 30s, Curtiss was a single-engine fighter company, with a long line of biplane pursuits for the Army and Navy, and then the P-36 and P-40 Hawk fighters for the Army Air Corps and export.

The CW-20 Condor III was by far the largest and most complex design the company had ever undertaken. The other distinctive Commando feature that Page confirmed at Caltech was the airplane's double-bubble, figure-eight cross-section. The CW-20 was intended to be pressurized, to compete with the Boeing 307, the world's first pressurized airliner.

Curtiss also wanted the CW-20 to have a large, separate luggage compartment under the main cabin, an innovation for that era. To encompass both a roomy cabin and a supplementary cargo area within a single circular cross section—the ideal for pressurization—would have created a fuselage with a large frontal area and thus increased form drag.

So Page outlined a partial circle tied firmly into a wide floor to contain the passenger cabin, and a separate smaller ovoid area, attached to the floor from below, for the unpressurized baggage area. Among the bombers modified for transport service, the first choice fell on the Liberator B-24 because of its long range.

Designated the C-87 Liberator Express, the modified bomber performed important transport services for the AAF from the beginning to the end of the war. As the C-109, it was used as a tanker and hauled large quantities of fuel across the Himalayas from India to China.

Many unmodified B-24s saw unanticipated service as transports and tankers in theaters throughout the world; a notable example being the use of a wing of the Eighth Air Force's B-24s in September 1944 to haul gasoline for George Patton's Third Army in France.

The emblem is that of the First Troop Carrier Command. Its motto: VINCIT QUI PEIMUM GERIT means: "He conquers who gets there first". An original patch is part of the Museum's collection. It is hand painted on a leather disc.

It was sewn onto a leather jacket worn by a crew member. The first 25 C-46s delivered were simply CW-20s with a bare interior. The 26th included a momentous change: Gone were Curtiss' 1,700-hp Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone engines, replaced by the finest, most reliable big radial ever built—Pratt & Whitney's 2,000-hp R-2800 Double Wasp.

With its two-stage supercharger, the R-2800 gave this first true Commando high-altitude capability appropriate for what was intended to be a pressurized airplane. The Douglas C-47 Skytrain was a military cargo version of the DC-3, a standby of the commercial airlines for a number of years before Pearl Harbor.

With other modifications the DC-3 became the C-53 Skytrooper, a troop and hospital transport. A steady and proven aircraft, the C-47 earned for itself a reputation hardly eclipsed even by the more glamorous of combat airplanes.

The dependable workhorse of the air, one found it everywhere shuttling freight or airborne troops. Before the war was over the AAF had accepted more than 10,000 DC-3 type airplanes which was nearly half of the transport planes it received between 1940 and 1945.

Historian Barbara Tuchman blames Madame Chiang Kai-Shek for the C-46's failures. "The Dragon Lady so incessantly pestered Roosevelt for more aircraft that he sent C-46s before they were ready," Tuchman wrote. One C-46 pilot quoted in Flying the Hump remembered "transporting an assorted load of Kotex for Madame Chiang and some good California wine for her husband."

This at a time when three American crewmen died for every thousand tons of cargo carried into China, on missions substantially more dangerous than bomber runs over Europe. When design of the Curtiss CW-20 airliner began in 1936, war was a distant threat to the non-interventionist United States, and the Douglas DC-3 had already demonstrated the possibility of serious commercial air travel.

The Doug had rendered obsolete the Boeing 247 and Curtiss' gawky 12-seat, retractable-gear Condor II biplane. Curtiss found itself looking at future competition from Boeing's four-engine 307 Stratoliner and the Douglas DC-4. A Commando typically flew the Hump with a crew of three—two pilots and a radio operator.

Despite numerous sources claiming that C-46s had flight engineers, there is no such position in the cockpit. Often a crew would also include a crew chief acting as a combined loadmaster and mechanic. Only a few C-46s served in Europe, most notably during Operation Varsity, the airdrop component of the Allied push across the Rhine River into Germany in late March 1945. During the assault, 19 of the 72 Commandos involved were shot down.

C-47s fared far better, since they had been fitted with self-sealing fuel tanks. The C-46s not only had standard metal tanks, they still suffered from wing-root fuel pooling problems. German flak lit them up at an unconscionable rate, and since many downed Commandos took with them full loads of paratroops, U.S.

Commander Maj. Gen. Matthew Ridgway decreed that C-46s were never again to carry aloft an 82nd Airborne trooper. I had a big laugh when I found that military gliders were being made by piano manufacturers ""' sounds a little incongruent.

I spent four years at Dover. At first I was an Air Policeman and walked the flight line under MATS aircraft. I was always part of the 95th Fighter Interceptor Squadron which was at Dover. I loved walking the flight line while my fellow mechanics were getting the F-106 repaired.

The result was noticeably less drag, but it was a pointless exercise. Curtiss had no time to develop a pressurization system in the midst of wartime demands, and after the war a lack of airline interest in a civilian version of the airplane left the company with no reason to do the work.

No CW-20 or C-46 was ever pressurized. Cargo operators loved the Curtiss Calamity's enormous cabin volume and heavy-lift capability, and the C-46 was largely responsible for the startup of Slick Airways, among others. Earl Slick bought 17 C-46s for $14,500 apiece—about $175,000 in 2016 dollars—and started using them to carry long lengths of oil-drilling pipe for Texas wildcatters.

Slick was soon the largest air freight carrier in the country. By that time war clouds loomed, and Curtiss parked the CW-20 in the back of its main Buffalo, N.Y., hangar while it ramped up production of P-40s for the British.

Legend has it that while touring aircraft manufacturing facilities in September 1940, Maj. Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold visited Curtiss, saw the CW-20 and supposedly declared, "I want that airplane." Since by then the Air Corps had already bought the prototype and was testing it—under the designation of C-55—more likely that's when Arnold became aware of its cargo- and troop-carrying potential.

Curtiss' C-46 development ended in 1946, when Eastern Air Lines canceled its order for CW-20Es, a proposed Wright R-3350-powered passenger-carrying variant of the Commando. Eastern realized there were hundreds of cheap C-47s coming onto the surplus market, and the Gooneys could fly the short/medium-haul routes more efficiently than the fuel-hungry C-46.

This nevertheless gave Curtiss plenty of time to publish postwar magazine ads touting the proposed new airliner with beaming stewardesses saying, "That's why I'm for airlines that fly Commando!" We can only assume the young ladies kept their undies on.

South and Central American airlines also fancied the Commando, in countries where air carriers were the only real roads to the interior, where mountains abounded and where many airfields were high, short and primitive. That combination gave me my only opportunity to fly a C-46.

On a travel magazine assignment in Costa Rica in 1968, I found myself aboard a Lacsa (today called Avianca Costa Rica) C-46. I was a cocky new private pilot and sent a note to the cockpit announcing as much.

The captain not only invited me up front but slid out of his seat and invited me to fly awhile. I remember little of the experience other than that the semicircular control wheel was the size of a toilet seat.

Commandos also got a reputation for fuel line vapor-locking at altitude when a crew tried to switch tanks. The only solution was to descend and try a restart, which was hardly an option over the Himalayas.

Postwar civilian C-46s all had submersible electric fuel pumps installed in their tanks, to forcibly push fuel through a vapor bubble. Countless published sources list carburetor icing as a C-46 bugaboo during Hump operations, but this is a misnomer.

To a pilot, "carburetor icing" means internal obstruction of a carburetor by moisture-laden air that is suddenly supercooled by flow through the carb venturi, turning the humid air to ice. What Commandos actually encountered—and they frequently did over the Himalayas—was impact icing, or physical obstruction of the external carburetor air scoop by snow, sleet and supercooled rain.

Choke off a piston engine's induction air source and it's out of business. The only cure is rapid selection of "alternate air" from a secondary air inlet inside the warm engine nacelle, before the big Pratt dies.

Restarting a hot but dead R-2800 at 20,000 feet could be a challenge. In charge was a prolific engineer, George A. Page Jr., who ultimately directed 60 Curtiss designs. Page was a pioneer aviator, having soloed in 1913, and he even worked briefly as an airline pilot.

The Commando was the high point of his career. Page had his CW-20 design extensively tested in the 10-foot-diameter Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratories wind tunnel at Caltech. Tunnel testing encouraged him to engineer unusual nacelles for what became the C-46, with cowl flaps only on the bottom half of the pods.

This avoided feeding any turbulent cooling airflow over the upper lifting surfaces of the wings. The Central Intelligence Agency was a long-time C-46 user, both in its false-front airlines—Air America and its predecessor, the Chinese Civil Air Transport (CAT)—as well as in a variety of clandestine operations.

The most notorious of these was the attempted Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, in April 1961. Those who remember the disastrous CIA operation will recall a motley crew of warbirds—T-33s, Sea Furys, B-26 Invaders—but few remember that

five C-46s were also an important part of the anti-Castro invasion. But the C-46 was nobody's favorite. Thirty-one of the 230 Commandos used on the Hump routes—more than 13 percent of the fleet—exploded in flight. It was long thought that 55-gallon drums of avgas cargo were the cause, and no matter how frigid the loaded eastbound flight to China, C-46 crews wouldn't touch the cockpit heater until they were returning to India empty, the cabin swept

clean of gas fumes. It was finally discovered that fuel from tiny leaks in the wing tanks and fuel lines pooled in the C-46's unvented wing roots, where a stray spark would eventually set it off.

After the war, all C-46s were modified with proper vents, sparkless fuel-boost pumps and shielded wing-area wiring. At the other end of the crew spectrum, C-46s were occasionally soloed over the Rockpile by especially experienced pilots.

All of the airplane's controls and systems were accessible from the left seat, unlike the C-47, which was soloed from the copilot's chair for easy access to the cowl flaps. The C-46 also had one thoughtful feature that greatly aided cargo-loading: The cabin floor just inside the large cargo door was level when the airplane was parked.

A forklift—or, as was sometimes the case in India, an elephant with a gasoline barrel wrapped in its trunk—was presented with a flat floor rather than the uphill tilt of a C-47. The Commando also had a particularly long tailwheel leg, to moderate the inclination of that uphill-when-parked floor.

Back in 1964 I was coming back from leave (Omaha) from boot camp. My uncle wrangled me a seat on a DC-3 (that is what I knew it as – the Air Force designation may have been different) out of Offut for the flight back to San Diego.

He was the navigator on the flight and a WW2 veteran. I was a lowly Naval E-2. I got called forward to have a few words with my uncle. The view was spectacular. Loved his control panel.

And all the other passengers were envious. An E-2? Gone are the days. The wind tunnel also verified one of the CW-20/C-46's most distinctive features—its streamlined, unstepped cockpit glazing, which gave the Commando its perfecto-cigar shape.

A small number of C-46s were built with conventional windshields; they were known as broken-nose commandos.

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