Fairchild C-119 Boxcar
[image credit - Wayne Moyer 2012]
While we focus on fighters and bombers the eighteen wheelers of the skies soldier on without any attention. Today we will show on one of the more unique pack mules of the air. The C-119 Boxcar delivered the goods without complaint for two decades showed the piston engine wasn’t dead.
Fairchild C-119 Boxcar
[image credit Wayne Moyer 2012]
While we focus on bombers and fighters the cargo aircraft continue to do their job without any attention. Today we will take some time and get acquainted with one of the more unusual Cold War tractor trailers of the air. The C-119 shows the idea of function over design. It was not the most attractive aircraft designed but it served its purpose very well. One of the primary lessons learned during World War Two was to make the loading and unloading of cargo quicker. Fairchild themselves showed how to do this with the C-82 Packet but it was underpowered and to small.
Picture of the rear clam shell doors
[image credit Wayne Moyer 2012]
The C-119 was larger and more powerful then the C-82 it replaced. It retained the twin boom design for the ease of loading cargo into the back of the aircraft. Even all these decades later the design doesn’t look at dated as it could. Some of the features seem like unusual answers to the design such as the overly long and extended landing gear while others almost make common sense.
Listed below are the numbers from Wikipedia.org.
General characteristics
- Crew: 5
- Capacity:
- 62 troops or
- 35 stretchers
- Payload: 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) of cargo
- Length: 86 ft 6 in (26.37 m)
- Wingspan: 109 ft 3 in (33.30 m)
- Height: 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m)
- Wing area: 1,447 ft² (134.4 m²)
- Empty weight: 40,000 lb (18,000 kg)
- Loaded weight: 64,000 lb (29,000 kg)
- Max. takeoff weight: 74,000 lb (34,000 kg)
- Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360-20 radial engines, 3,500 hp (2,611 kW each) each
This must have been fun:
<img src="http://navyphotos.togetherweserved.com/2163779.jpg" />
img src: navy.togetherweserved.com
I didn't know they tried JATO with a C-119. I would have thought it would have broken the wings off.
Same here. I guess there was a period where they'd stick JATO on just about anything.
During the early 50s they tried them on pretty much everything with wings. The Germans had shown them how useful they were and we wanted to see for ourselves. This almost looks like a zero launch test other then the wheels were out. Where they would launch a plane off of a truck based catapult.
Built for easy berthing.
<img src="http://www.belgian-wings.be/webpages/navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Fairchild%20C-119F%20Flying%20Boxcar/C119F-CP15-GD-Coll_04.jpg" width=600>
Then our scoutmaster said that he felt that it wasnt quite the right time to jump but we could try later. We sat down as if this was just part of being a boy scout and thought about how disappointed we were yet very relieved at the same time. I do remember though that as we were landing and the gear hit the tarmack, huge sparks and some smoke lept from the port bulkhead. That seemed to be the most alarming event of the whole flight. It really scared us. We jumped. We disembarked, put our chutes away, (I am sure to be packed correctly later) and had fun hanging out in the barracks the rest of the weekend playing the kid games that we loved so much. When at home nothing significant happened to me regarding my parents and to this day I believe that my parents and the parents of the other kids knew all the time what was going to happen. I have often wondered if any of my fellow scouts ever went into the airborne from our experience. My scoutmaster changed my life for the better in a way that no parent, teacher,pastor or coach could ever have done. To him I will forever be grateful. He was one of the finest Christian men I have ever known.
I only saw this story now and I wanted to say thank you for writing it here. That must have been a very interesting day for you.
I dont have much experience with the flying boxcar except for the following in 1960. When I was a boy scout and about 10 years old, our scoutmaster made a deal with the local national guard I believe and had us spend a weekend in the barracks at the local guard in Indianapolis, Indiana. On Saturday morning after breakfast we were told that we would be taught how to pack parachutes. We went to the long long tables and stuffed them in as we were shown. Incorrectly of course. After the parachutes were packed they told us to put them on our backs and to follow the scout master. He led us to, guess what, a flying boxcar we were told it was. We followed him, with our trusty parachutes on our backs into the aft starboard hatch. I believe we walked up an inclined ramp of some sorts. In we went with complete trust in our scoutmaster. About 10 or 12 of us sat equally on the port and starboard sides. As we sat there we were shaken by the start of first one then the other engine. The plane shook and yet we were not frightened. We thought it was a lot of fun. I believe that none of us had ever been in an airplane let alone leave the earth in one.
Remember this was rural Indiana. As the engines got up to cruising speed the shaking died to a dull roar. Suddenly, our scout master told us to stand up one at a time and he would connect us to the long bar above our heads. As he hooked us up we were told to face aft but to back up towards the front of the plane. We patiently waited for the last one of us to be hooked to the strange bar well above our heads. As we were getting bored looking at nothing but the inside of this green airplane, a loud humming noise started to catch our attention as two huge doors slowly opened from center to an outside vast green and golden colors of Indiana earth that was the larges site we had ever seen other than the blue sky. What we saw was shocking yet mysteriously fascinating. Some of the younger kids started to wimper. We just knew that it would only be logical to jump as we had our trusty parachutes ready to fly. As we stood there the shock and excitement subsided as the clamshell doors were closed.