The largest cargo aircraft to fly the Berlin Airlift was the USAF C-74. Yet while this impressive cargo carrier made some spectacular attention-grabbing flights, it was not routinely employed on the humanitarian effort to keep Berlin free.   In early 1942, just after the US military laid claim to all DC-4s in production, Douglas Aircraft Corporation started work on the design of a larger more capable cargo plane to meet the exploding transport needs of the army. Top of the list of requirements was the ability to transport light tanks, howitzers and bulldozers. A prototype was finished by 1945, but the end of the war caused the military to reduce their order from 50 to 14. Of these, only 11 saw service, and one lost a wing during a test flight, causing Douglas to undertake major modifications that resulted in a new aircraft, the C-124, which proved to be more successful. The C-124, however, did not take flight until 1950, making the C-74 the largest aircraft available to the ...

Although the ATA was conceived as means to employ skilled pilots in support roles, the pool of trained pilots was soon drained by the demands of war. The ATA and no choice but to start training pilots in order to meet the demands placed on it. With astonishing speed, it created a large -- and highly efficient -- training establishment. Women were as fully integrated in training as they were in flying.  Below one of ATA's women instructors, Joan Hughes, instructing on heavy bombers.   The ATA's first operational training school was co-located with ATA Headquarters at White Waltham. It opened in March 1941 with twenty instructors and twenty-nine aircraft. Just one year later, the number of training aircraft had grown to 100 and it was no longer safe to do all instructing at a single airfield, so a new training field was established at Luton. All the slow, elementary aircraft -- and the training conducted on them -- were moved to Luton, leaving only the faster, operational aircra...

  While the C-47/Dakota -- the military versions of the DC-3 -- became the symbol of the Berlin Airlift because they were the first aircraft Britain and the United States sent to Berlin with supplies, the DC-3 did not make the greatest contribution. That honour goes to the larger, four-engine C-54. The C-54 'Skymaster' was born out of a commercial design by Douglas Aircraft corporation which had been developed to meet commercial demands for a larger, long-range passenger transport. It was designated the DC-4. By the time the design was ready for testing, however, the United States had entered WWII. The US military immediately appropriated all 80 aircraft already ordered and pressed them into service. The government needed a plane that could rapidly deliver people and dispatches over long distances, notably across the Atlantic.  Within months, however, more orders were placed for a cargo version of the DC-4. These versions had removable seats and could carry either passengers o...