According to Wendover Airfield, five Douglas C-54 Skymasters provided essential air logistics support to the operations of the atomic mission. The campaign for Okinawa, which took place in parallel to the Battle of Okinawa, 16,599 casualties were evacuated through aircraft by Army Air Forces, the Navy, and – approximately 60% of them flown out by VRE-1. In addition, the Sacred Cow also had a “battery-powered elevator was installed at the rear of the aircraft which allowed President Roosevelt to board the aircraft easily while in his wheelchair”. One of its unofficial nicknames was “Sacred Cow”, which was “a reference to the high security surrounding the aircraft and its special status”. The civilian aircraft Douglas DC-4 was first converted into the C-4, an aircraft type whose only 24 units were produced.

Explosion in North Africa (

Since it was a basic transport and needed no modification for military use, deliveries to the Army Air Forces began in June. The Ferrying Command also had its eye on Douglas Aircraft Company’s new DC-4, which the military designated as the C-54, although the command hedged its bets by also ordering the twin-engine Curtiss C-46 Commando. The converted Liberators were assigned to the recently established Air Corps Ferrying Command to establish a route system over which multiengine aircraft could be delivered to the combat zones. The newly established need for long-range transports became so great that when the Army received its first Consolidated B-24 Liberators 11 were converted into transports even though the type had been developed to fill a requirement for a long-range bomber to replace the Boeing B-17.

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• A second modification, the C-54B, was equipped with canvas seats instead of the metal buckets of the earlier version in a weight-saving move; the easily stowable seats also allowed transportation of large crates and other items of cargo, including aircraft engines and small vehicles.
• The aircraft had 26 personnel aboard including eleven nurses.
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• The need for four-engine transports was so great that the War Department ordered large numbers of B-24s converted to the transport role as the C-87 Liberator Express.
• On the C-54B two of the auxiliary fuel tanks were removed, and were replaced by tanks built into the outer wing panels.
• They also served as the main airlift during the Korean War.

Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian airliner, the Douglas DC-4.

Berlin corridor attack (

As the war began winding down, the C-54s that had originally been contracted by the airlines were released from the military and placed in commercial service. Perhaps the most famous Skymaster was a specially built C-54C that was ordered as a presidential support aircraft for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Since the new bases in the Marianas were on islands, the massive numbers of transport forces that had deployed to India with them were not needed, so Arnold transferred them to Tunner’s command. General Henry “Hap” Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, decided that the cost of airlifting fuel and other supplies for B-29s from India to China was prohibitive and ordered the bomber force transferred to the Marianas, which had recently fallen into Allied hands.

• It was one of the first aircraft to carry the President of the United States, the first being President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.
• After the Korean War it continued to be used for military and civilian uses by more than 30 countries.
• It was used for transporting troops, cargo, and medical evacuations across the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.
• Army provisional force under the command of Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill began an unannounced and initially unheralded walk into northern Burma.
• On 14 May 1948, an army transport plane flying through a rainstorm crashed in Northampton, Massachusetts, killing the three crew members aboard.
• It went from prototype to production in a record span of time, making its maiden flight in 1942 and entering service in 1943.

The Douglas transport had also captured the attention of high-ranking officers in the War and Navy Departments, and several C-54s were assigned to provide transport for VIPs. Shortly after the capture of Myitkyina, Brig. Gen. William H. Tunner arrived in India to take command of the India-China Wing of the ATC. Since some of the mountains overlooking the Assam reached well above 20,000 feet, C-54 operations had been ruled out. Even more important, the capture of the airfield deprived the Japanese of an advance fighter base from which they could threaten the Hump routes and also could serve as a base for American fighters. The capture of Myitkyina was undoubtedly the most fortuitous event of the war in the CBI Theater for the Allies.
The total fuel capacity went up to 3,740 US gallons. When all four auxiliary fuel tanks were used the C-54A could carry 3,620 US gallons of fuel. 97 seven were built at Santa Monica and 155 at Chicago. In 1948 another C-54D flew from Fairbank to Oslo via the North Pole in 22 hours. At the end of the war all of the remaining maniacasino Skymasters were returned to the United States. One notable exception saw the Presidential VC-54C, accompanied by 33 other four-engined transports, take President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference.

Operational history

During the first years of ATC operations, there were no standardized procedures and each pilot operated by his own set of rules. The C-54 also featured a steerable nosewheel, a feature that allowed pilots far more control of their airplanes while taxiing and in the early stages of the takeoff roll before the rudder became effective. By 1943 substantial numbers of C-54s were starting to come into the ATC inventory, and the new four-engine transports soon became favored by the pilots and crew members who  flew them. Designated as the C-54A, the new version did not become available for military testing until February 1943. Thus, they were initially assigned primarily to transport high-priority passengers and dispatches.

Planes Mentioned

When the Secret Service expressed doubts about the safety of the C-87, the USAAF turned to the Douglas Aircraft Company to build a military transport specifically to accommodate the special needs of the president.” “In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US president to fly in an airplane while in office when the Navy-owned, but civilian-operated Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, Dixie Clipper, transported the president to the Casablanca Conference. When the C-54C was introduced it became “the first aircraft purpose-built to fly the President of the United States”, which was heavily modified in line.

The contribution of Douglas C-54 Skymaster during Berlin Airlift

His rationale was that the C-54 was a safer airplane and its use would drastically reduce the accident rate on the Hump airlift. In short, the capture of Myitkyina led to the attaining of air superiority over Burma—and opened the door for the introduction of the C-54 to the Hump airlift. Army provisional force under the command of Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill began an unannounced and initially unheralded walk into northern Burma.
Canadair produced one prototype, seventeen  North Star Mk Is, and five North Star Mk MI with Merlin 622 engines. The C-54GM was built under licence by Canadair. The interior of the C-54E was designed to allow a rapid change between cargo plane, 50 seat troop transport or 44 seat staff transport. The final two auxiliary cabin tanks were removed, and replaced by collapsible bag-type fuel tanks built into the inner wing sections.
These aircraft were known as the North Star in RCAF service. Early aircraft had the -3 engines, later production had the -7. The C-54A was a fully militarized version of the DC-4, with a reinforced cargo floor, a large (2.38m by 1.7m) cargo door and built-in cargo loading hoist. The C-54 returned to combat during the Korean War, at first evacuating 851 American civilians from South Korean, and then as a transport and casualty evacuation aircraft. After necessary testing, the aircraft entered service as DC-6.