PING!
The sound of those engines at idle. Like the coolest jazz beat you’ve ever heard.
Beautiful plane. My uncle flew P3s back in the day and had some great models. Here is a link to video soneone shot after building a model of this one:
Also the main workhorse of the Berlin Airlift.
Great photo. When I was 8 yrs old, I couldn’t build enough model airplanes to hang in my bedroom. I had a C-54, possibly my first one. Most of these (Douglas, Boeing, Lockheed, and many other companies that don’t exist anymore) and at the age of 74 I don’t have but a few still in a cardboard box. Maybe my grandkids could pass them along to the great-kids. BTW - Nice photo!
A C-54 crashed at the end of the Tucson International Airport runway when I was a kid. The aircraft was totaled but no one was seriously hurt. I had just started learning to fly at the time. I never forgot that one because the pilot forgot to remove the control locks prior to takeoff.
Pretty darn cool!
Took a hop on one in 63’, it was loaded with crates for Central America stenciled, “Alliance For Progress”, yup, motor rounds and grenades for our allies???
Wasn’t this the plane that made the Russians give up on their blockade of Berlin?
C-54 (the civilian commercial version was the DC-4) was a great airplane. My Dad was a bomber pilot in WWII, and after the war he flew for United Airlines for a few years, and the DC-4 was one of the planes he flew with United. He always said it was a good platform.
Back in ‘65-’66 I worked flight-line maintenance on transient cargo aircraft at Hickam Field on Oahu. The newly introduced ‘T’ tail, jet engine, C-141 was the Air Force’s new stragetic workhorse in the build up for Vietnam along with C124s, C-130s, and C-133s adding support. Occasionally older cargo planes would arrive requiring maintenance such as Gooney Birds, $19s, C-54s, C-97s, C-118s, C-121s, C-118s, and C-123s. We always groused and complained about working on the old birds but the truth was we learned a great deal about the evolution of avionics. If you look at the C-54 and compare it to the C-118 (my favorite prop cargo/executive plane) you can’t miss the bloodlines.
BTW, Operation Bluelight moved the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry (Electric Strawberrys) from Schofield Barracks Hawaii to Pleiku Vietnam. The balance of the 25th went to CuChi North of Siagon. They were there so long they eventually became known as the CuChi National Guard. Anyway, in terms of weight moved, Op Bluelight, not well known, was bigger than the Berlin Airlift, although not as significant. I know, I worked 12hrs/day for months and enjoyed every minute.