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[1984.048.001] Aircraft - 'VC-118B (R6D) Liftmaster' |
| Accession Number |
1984.048.001 |
| Accession Date |
30/06/1984 |
| Creator |
| Creator |
Creator Role |
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Manufacturer |
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| Date Created |
1951 |
| Object Desciption |
The museum's VC-118B (Bureau Number 128424) entered service as a R6D-1 on 6 September 1951, the first of this version of the Liftmaster that was delivered to the U.S. Navy. To this end, when it took to the air for its flight to its first squadron, Transport Squadron (VR) 5 at Naval Air Station (NAS) Moffett Field, California, the airplane carried Donald Douglas, Sr., the founder of Douglas Aircraft Company. In VR-5, Naval Air Reserve pilots with civilian airline experience in the type of aircraft, flew it while serving as the initial training cadre for the squadron. During 1954-1955, the airplane was converted to a VIP transport and subsequently joined VR-21 based at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii, For the next 29 years, which encompassed the entire Vietnam War, the airplane served as a flag transport for the Commander in Chief Pacific and Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet in VR-21 and Composite Squadron (VC) . During this time its passengers including admirals, ambassadors, and heads of state. Flight delivered to NAS Pensacola, Florida, in 1983, Bureau Number 128424 was accessioned into the museum collection in 1984. |
| Notes |
Another in the long line of Douglas civilian air transports procured by the armed forces, the R6D (all Navy R6Ds were redesignated C-118s in 1962) bore a family resemblance to its predecessors and possessed the same reliability. Procured mainly for service in the Military Air Transport Service, the first C-118 to wear the stars and bars was assigned to the U.S. Air Force in July 1947, for use as the official aircraft for President Harry S. Truman and christened Independence. The Navy took delivery of 65 production aircraft between 1950 and 1952, operating the type as logistics transports with the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) and in the VIP transport role.
Serving into the 1980s, the aircraft was tragically involved in three deadly accidents during its service life in the Navy. In 1955 an R6D crashed northwest of Honolulu with the loss of sixty-six lives - the worst heavier-than-air crash in the history of U.S. naval aviation. A year later an R6D disappeared over the Atlantic with the loss of fifty-nine passengers and crew. Finally, in 1960, a Liftmaster carrying members of the Navy Band and a team of anti-submarine specialists, collided with a Brazilian airliner. The accident took the lives of all twenty-six people on board the airliner, and all but three of the thirty-eight men on board the R6D were killed.
The Liftmaster was well known to Naval Air Reserve pilots, who often flew them on their weekend training flights. In 1965, these weekend flights assumed a level of greater importance as the pilots and crews began flying volunteer airlift missions in support of operations in Vietnam. From their home bases they flew to the West Coast, Hawaii, and on to Southeast Asia, delivering key personnel and important cargo to the combat zone. These volunteer weekend warriors logged 19,000 hours of flight time in the first eighteen months of the operation.
Specifications
Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company
Dimensions: Length: 105 ft., 10 in.; Height 28 ft., 8 in.; Wingspan: 117 ft., 6 in.
Weights: Empty: 87,360 lb.; Gross: 112350 lb.
Power Plant: Four 2,500 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2800-52W engines
Performance: Maximum Speed: 300 M.P.H.; Service Ceiling: 27,200 ft.; Range: 4,910 miles
Armament: None
Crew: Six to eight
Aircraft in the Museum Collection
VC-118B (BuNo 128424)- On outdoor static display |
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