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| Despite having been the world's largest landplane transport when it flew in 1945, the Douglas C-74 Globemaster was actually too small-in volume-to accommodate the outsized loads dictated by the American military's postwar logistical needs. In response to this problem, the fifth C-74 was held back at the factory to undergo far- reaching modifications under the new designation YC-124. Using the wings, engine nacelles, and tail group of the C-74, Douglas evolved an entirely new fuselage by adding five feet ten inches to overall length, raising the height of the main cargo bay five feet, and lowering the depth of forward fuselage to permit loading of trucks, artillery pieces, aircraft sub- assemblies, or bulky equipment through a set of full- width clamshell doors in a new nose section that incorporated a built- in, hydraulically lowered ramp. The aft, belly loading hatch of the C-74 was retained, and to assist fore and aft movement of large loads, two overhead hoists, with 16,000 lbs. lifting capacity each, were installed in the main cargo bay. When rigged in a double deck configuration, the new fuselage design could also house 200 fully equipped troops or 127 evacuees in medical litters.
Dubbed "Globemaster II," the YC-124 completed its maiden flight on November 27, 1949, and deliveries of the first of 204 C-124A production models to the USAF commenced in May 1950. The prototype became the YC-124A when re- powered with 3,800-hp R-4360-35A engines, then reemerged in 1954 as the YC-124B after being modified to serve as a flying testbed for 5,500-shp Pratt & Whitney YT34 turboprop engines. A KC-124B tanker variant was considered as a potential KC-97 replacement but never materialized. The Long Beach plant shifted to production of 243 improved C-124Cs delivered between 1952 and 1955, which differed in having 3,800-hp R-4360-63A engines, an APS-42 weather radar in a nose- mounted thimble radome, and wingtip- mounted combustion heaters that provided thermal de-icing and cabin heating, and over a period of years, the existing C-124A fleet received retrofits that brought them up to the C standard. A pressurized variant was studied as the C-124X but never built, and during the mid-1950s, a much redesigned turboprop- powered, swept- wing derivative, designated XC-132, got as far as the mockup stage but was ultimately canceled in favor of the C-133.
C-124As began entering service during 1950 in time to play an important role in the Korean War (1950-1953). For the first time, MATS possessed a long- range aircraft capable of loading bulky items like tanks, guns, trucks, and construction equipment without major disassembly; and in Strategic Support Squadrons, new Globemasters gave SAC the ability to deliver large aircraft components to any of its widespread bases. As the USAF's C-124A and C fleet grew to planned strength in the mid-1950s, it formed the bulk- carrying nucleus of every major U.S. military airlift operation conducted from that time up until the late 1960s. Some of the C-124's more notable achievements included moving an entire squadron of Lockheed F-104s from the U.S. to Taiwan during the Formosa Straits Crisis in 1958; during Operation Deep Freeze (1957-1962), regular airdrops from C-124s formed the supply line from McMurdo Base to outlying stations in the Antarctic; and as part of Operation Big Lift in 1963, MATS C-124s moved the 2nd Armored Division and a TAC Strike Force from U.S. bases to Germany in two and a half days.
At their peak in 1963, 377 C-124s were operating with 20 different transport squadrons. As American involvement in Southeast Asia escalated in the mid-1960s, C-124s began flying transport sorties directly into South Vietnam, and from early 1966, continued with Military Airlift Command (MAC) when that organization replaced MATS. Although the USAF started the process of phasing- out C-124s from frontline service and transferring them to reserve and ANG units in mid-1960s, the type's bulk cargo capacity was not matched until Lockheed C-5s became operational with MAC during 1969-1970. From 1964 to 1972, to augment MATS/MAC operations, USAF reserve units flew C-124s on overseas sorties from eleven different bases within the continental U.S., and starting in 1966, they also served in eight ANG squadrons until the last examples were retired in mid-1974, finally ending the type's military service. The last recorded flight of a C-124 occurred on October 9, 1986 when C-124C AF Ser. No. 52-0994 was ferried from Selfridge ANG Base, Michigan to McChord AFB, Washington.
E.R.Johnson "American military transport aircraft since 1925", 2013
There was little doubt of the load-carrying capability of the C-74 and when, in late 1947, the newly-formed US Air Force decided it needed a heavy strategic cargo transport, discussions between the.USAF and Douglas resulted in development of the C-124 Globemaster II, based on the C-74.
In fact, the prototype YC-124 was basically the fifth C-74 provided with a new, deeper fuselage and strengthened landing gear. Powered by 2610kW R-4360-49 radial engines, it was flown for the first time on 27 November 1949. The type entered production as the C-124A, of which 204 were built, the first of them entering service with the USAF in May 1950. The next, and final, production version was the C-124C, with more-powerful R-4360 engines, weather radar in a distinctive nose radome and, equally useful recognition points, wingtip fairings housing combustion heaters to de-ice the wing and tailplane leading edges and to heat the cabin. C-124C production totalled 243, the last machine being delivered during May 1955.
The fuselage of the Globemaster II had clamshell nose loading doors with an associated built-in loading ramp, an electric hoist amidships which was a carry-over from the C-74, and two overhead cranes (each with a capacity of 7257kg which could traverse the entire length of the 23.47m-long cargo hold. The flight deck, accommodating a crew of five, was mounted high in the nose, over the clamshell doors. When used in a transport role (with two decks installed), the Globemaster II could carry a maximum of 200 fully-equipped troops, or 123 stretcher cases plus 45 ambulatory patients and 15 medical attendants.
Serving with the USAF's Air Materiel Command, Far Eastern Air Force, Military Air Transport Service, Strategic Air Command and Tactical Air Command, and used in conjunction with Douglas C-133s, the Globemaster Us remained in service until replaced by the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy during 1970.
When the Globemaster Is ended their useful, service life; some were acquired by civil cargo operators.
D.Donald "The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft", 1997
| CREW | 6 |
| PASSENGERS | 200 |
| ENGINE | 4 x P+W R-4360-63, 2795kW |
| WEIGHTS |
| Take-off weight | 84000 kg | 185189 lb |
| DIMENSIONS |
| Wingspan | 53.1 m | 174 ft 3 in |
| Length | 39.8 m | 131 ft 7 in |
| Height | 14.7 m | 48 ft 3 in |
| Wing area | 233.0 m2 | 2507.99 sq ft |
| PERFORMANCE |
| Cruise speed | 520 km/h | 323 mph |
| Ceiling | 6100 m | 20000 ft |
| Range w/max.fuel | 6500 km | 4039 miles |
| Range w/max payload | 1970 km | 1224 miles |
| Pam Gaither, e-mail, 07.09.2012 02:13 I am looking for men who knew my stepfather Jack Reed. Jack was at Donaldson AFB and Hunter for many years and was a supervising mechanic on the C-124, crew leader, flight chief.
He was with the 63rd Troop Carrier Wing, 63rd OMS & FMS with the Military Air Transport System that became Military Airlift Command. He was there in the late 1950s to early 1967.
I would love to hear from you if you knew him.
I'm trying to learn what a Crew Chiefs and Flight Chiefs jobs were. Did they fly with the aircraft? reply | | peter piazza, e-mail, 03.09.2012 04:28 Was a hydraulic mechanic in the 1607th field maintenance sq. at Dover AFB Del.from 1959 to 1962. Worked on the C124 & 133 it was a great A /C.Have many stories.This site brought back many memories reply | | edwardj nott, e-mail, 01.09.2012 22:43 I worked on the C-124 at dover AFB from 1961 -1965 in the 1607 OMs . It was a great plane and I enjoyed working on it reply | | RICHARD D. JOHNSON, e-mail, 28.08.2012 02:09 I WAS STATIONED WITH THE U.S. ARMY IN KOREA IN 1955- 1956. GOT R&R IN NOV 1955 FIRST TIME I EVER FLEW AND IT WAS IN A C-124. GOT ME HOOKED ON FLYING. I NOW HAVE 3000 HRS LOGGED IN SINGLE ENGINE A /C., BUT, ONLY ONE FLIGHT IN THE C-124. USAF MUSEUM AT DAYTON, OHIO HAS ONE ON DISPLAY BROUGHT BACK OLD MEMORIES. MANY THANKS TO THE USAF GUYS THAT CREWED THE A /C FOR MATS. reply | |
| | B Fielder, e-mail, 13.08.2012 01:22 I do not find any reference to the C-124B, which was the 1st and only turbo-prop version of a great airplane. Don't know of many details, was only involved in the structural instrumentation on the plane. reply | | John Hille, e-mail, 07.08.2012 21:46 John Way, it was nice to read your post! I was stationed at Donaldson for 3 years, crewing, flying and enjoying every minute of the extensive travels that came with the assignment. Spent many a night in the Douglas Hotel, while the rest of the crew was enjoying the local fair. Your attesting to only loosing one engine while flying the C-124 pretty well sums it up. A good aircraft, and wonderful engines. I made a post about a year ago on this site about a hair raising event coming back from rotation in Germany. An interesting chain of events that I think you will enjoy reading. There is no doubt that there are enough good stories out there to write a book, which I have pondered, and I guess if it's to be done I should get started, as we are all getting on in years. My love of the C-124 is evident by my vanity license plates on the car and RV. "C-124-C" on the car and "C-124CC" on the RV. (CC=Crew Chief) Thanks for the post! reply | | John Way, e-mail, 05.08.2012 03:22 I was a new pilot who flew the C124 out of Hunter AFB, Savannah, Georgia during the mid sixties. "Old Shaky" was huge and slow, but it got you where you needed to go. At times, flying over the open oceans was a bit unnerving, i.e., flying at 10,000-14,000 feet is a lot different from flying at 30,000-35,000 feet. I remember an 'old' flight engineer telling me there was a shark named 'Mag Check Charlie' off the coast of the Hickam AFB runway in Hawaii. The shark supposedly listened to your engines during run-up, and if he detected problems he swam to the other end of the runway and waited for you to crash. We had a fantastic crew who flew a lot of flights together. I liked flying the C124, but 'never got complacent about takeoffs and landings. I thought it was a bear to land the C124, especially with a crosswind. I flew flights into England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy,
Turkey, Iran, India, Zaire, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Surinam, Azores, Ascension Island, Wake Island, Guam, Japan, The Philippines, and South Vietnam. Only one engine failed during all these flights. Another time I had a flat tire when I 'put on the brakes' too sharply. Can you believe it was doing a routine 'check flight'? Those were the only
problems I encountered...or of which I was aware. After flying out of Nam I was once told there was evidence of gunfire hits, but I was not aware of it at the time. One scary incident occurred on a flight into the Dominican Republic. There was only one airport and runway , and the rebels would takeoff, return and strafe the planes still sitting on the ground. The plane doing the strafe was shot down and hit the ground near where we were running up the engines. No-one near our plane was hurt. On a prolonged trip to New Delhi, India our crew took a memorable trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal. One memory I'm sure all C124 crews have is the coffee that turned to mud by the time you got to where you were going. Great memories...I've wanted to reconnect with members of our crew, but it never happened. reply | | BEN F REED, e-mail, 31.07.2012 01:03 I WAS IN THE 2SSS FORM JAN 1956 TO JUNE 1958, WENT I WAS SEND BACK TO CALIF, TO COOKE ARMY BASE. I WAS ON THE 0093 AIRCRFT,
THE NEWS ON IN THE SQ. I WAS ASST CREW CHIEF TO M /SGT PATTERSON, THE ONLY MASTER THAT FLEW AS A CREW CHIEF, THE PLANE WAS VERY GOOD TO ME, AND WE DID SEE ALOT OF WORLD,
SURE WOULD HAVE LIKE TO STAY WITH THE SQ. LOT OF GOOD GUYS IN IT AND THE CREW I FLEW WAS SECOND TO NONE. DID RETIRE FROM THE AIR FORCE AFTER 38 YEAR IN THE REG AND RESERVES reply | | Jeffrey Jarvis, e-mail, 20.07.2012 21:31 My cousin MAJ Charles "Chuck" Gutierrez flew the C-124 with a Reserve unit at Hanscom Field in the late 1960's /early 1970's. He told me about flying them to Paramaribo and on to Ascension Island, a really long trip! As a youngster in Balboa, CZ in the late 1950's I remember them taking off from Albrook AFB and hearing them coming for almost a minute with the sound getting gradually louder and louder until they slowly passed by shaking our house and the ground and then the sound slowly fading out. I thought it was a magnificent airplane, and still do! I have over 7,000 hours over 10 years in the 747 and the landing was pretty much mechanical, dictated by the radio altimeter callouts, throttles closed at 30 feet, apply slight back pressure, and it would grease right on. I wonder.....how was it done in the C-124 sitting so high up? reply | | Micah Smith, e-mail, 23.06.2012 08:19 Hi Guys can any of you please help me out in any way? I don't mean to clutter up the forums and most of you are probably too young to know much, but if you have any way to get the info please help! I am trying to find any reunion info (past as they've not had one in long time) for WWII 435th Signal Heavy Construction Battalion Co. B. I'd really like to find any living people of the BTN or anyone that fought alongside them or more specifically a lineman 238 serving WWII 1942-1945 in multiple campaigns a lot of which he recieved no credit for. Also told he is thought to have been a selected few who were in the Top Secret Radar training and Radar ops explaining why he was in Corpus. His name was Earl Taylor Fairchild, lived mostof his life in Enid, Ok as a child, Corpus Christi after his service (and right after enlistment, but before deployment) and the last 40 yrs in Ripley (near Stillwater, OK Go Pokes) Please Please anyone especially that knew this man or descendants of members of the batn I am desperately seeking pictures, stories, any info as I don't have a single one because everything pertaining to his service and letters to my grandma were stolen when I was a child and I've never got to know this beautiful heroic history I'm learning! You may contact me at micandjess@provalue.net reply | | Jim Leahy, e-mail, 22.06.2012 19:15 Hi to all,
My dad, Jim Leahy, was a flight engineer on the C124 from about 1951 until he retired in 1965. He was stationed at West Palm Beach (Morrison Field), Dover, Tinker, and Hickam. The C124 was his life and he loved it and all of you who were part of it. He passed away in 2001 after a short battle with cancer. If you knew him, I would appreciate hearing from you. Thanks...Jim Leahy Jr. reply | | Frye, e-mail, 20.06.2012 00:49 I was a flight mechanic on a C-124, 7TH logistics Squadron, Warner Robins Air Force Base in the early 60s. It was a great time and a great place to grow up. Most importantly I was with a group of men from all over United States. I learned a lot about our country trough them. w. The closest our squadron came to combat was when we readied two C-124 for troop transport out of Fort Benning during the Cuban missile crisis. reply | | Lori Gastian, e-mail, 05.06.2012 17:48 My father, MSgt. James Gastian, loved "Old Shakey". He passed away in Honolulu in October 1966 but I remember many stories about this plane. reply | | Walt Martley, e-mail, 30.05.2012 14:41 One regular task was to crawl out into the wings every hour while over water. to check engine accessory sections. One time I grabbed a door handle to slide the door open and burned my hand. An exhaust clamp had come off, allowing a stack ball joint to swivel and the exhaust to blow back where it was definitely not supposed to go. There were no fire warnings,except my hollering !!! We ended up changing the engine at Kindley. A nice few days on the beach waiting for an engine. In the Log Sqdns we carried our own mechs and changed it ourselves. reply | |
| | Martin O'Donnell, e-mail, 30.05.2012 13:43 Had two on the line at Elmendorf AFB back in "69 /70". We called them "The Cool Mules". They were easy to load, just took awhile. Never "broke a sweat" though with those dual overhead cranes. You could crawl out in the wings or up in the tail while flying if you "got bored" too. reply | | Julie Kennedy-Carpenter, e-mail, 27.05.2012 03:36 My older brother, Billy Lee Kennedy, was killed in this plane on 10 /3 /56 over the Charleston SC airfield due to numerous pilot and co-pilot and navigator errors. There is a website for this accident. reply | | Al Hill, e-mail, 16.05.2012 20:33 I was in the 19th Log in supply and signed on as a load master the trip took in several countries and many stops we crew rested in spain on the trip a cover for the inboard prop motor became canted and we had to make a quick landing,next and oil pump went bad covered the right side of the plane with oil spent hours cleaning it up on the next landing,it was a 12 day trip we ended up in califoria and on take off to Kelly the left side outboard engin was shut down for fire, we did a 180 I do't think we has gotton much higher than 1000 feet did an emergancy landing with fire trucks and the whole shot, turns out an ADI line in the rear of the necell caut fire so the engine fire bottle did note help it was the wheels going down that sucked the fire out, I believe the Pilot Capt Pelton go the air medal, the real hero was the flight machcanic that tried to crawl out over the wheels to get to the fire when we landed they found fiber locked nuts that burned off the bottom of the wet wing if we had been in the air a little longer we would not have made it reply | | Joseph McKean, e-mail, 08.05.2012 00:40 It seems to me that in the 1950's Arther Godfrey, on his
TV show held a TV show in the C-124 to promote it to the public.
Am I correct on this.
This is a great web-site. Thank you reply | | JOHN DILL, e-mail, 05.05.2012 18:06 I got recalled in January,1968,at Stewart AFB IN THE 904TH, right after the Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans. I flew as A /C on it for 19 months, first 4 months as a C /P. Great old machine. SEVEN TRIPS OVER TO VIETNAM. It was an F /E airplane and flew well on three egines. Also 3 winter months in Europe. Max kias was 180. Big change landing it 50 feet above the ground from the B52H at about 8 feet. reply | | JOHN DILL, e-mail, 05.05.2012 18:05 I got recalled in January,1968,at Stewart AFB IN THE 904TH, right after the Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans. I flew as A /C on it for 19 months, first 4 months as a C /P. Great old machine. SEVEN TRIPS OVER TO VIETNAM. It was an F /E airplane and flew well on three egines. Also 3 winter months in Europe. Max kias was 180. Big change landing it 50 feet above the ground from the B52H at about 8 feet. reply |
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