Aircraft of the Berlin Airlift : C-74 Globemaster
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 ...