Over the years, many aircraft disappearances have baffled the world of avation. The most obvious, and perhaps the most harrowing of them was the disppearance of Malaysian Airlines MH 370. Another noteworthy incident is the disappearance of Uruguayan Airlines Flight 571, which was later discovered, only to leave the world in bewilderment, for the case of cannibalism of the triumphant spirit of the survivors to eke out a life in the most frigid, unimaginable circumstances. The disappearance of a Douglas DC-4 Skymaster in 1950 led to the largest consecrated efforts by the US and Canada to find an aircraft that vanished in the skies.
Designed in the 1940s, the four-engine aircraft Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a military version of the civilian airliner Douglas DC-4 and saw heavy deployment during World War II, the Korean War, and the Berlin airlift. Hill Aerospace Museum claims that the aircraft “accumulated over a million miles transporting cargo across the North Atlantic during World War II, with a total of 79,642 ocean crossings”. Skymaster could carry fifty troops, was used (for troop and cargo transportation) well beyond the end of the Great War until it was retired in 1975. Carriers such as Australian National Airways (ANA), Qantas(QF) [the airline which is an acronym of Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited], Trans-Atlantic Airlines (TAA), and ANSETT-ANA.
During the Berlin Airlift of 1948 alone, more than 300 aircraft of this type were deployed. Skymaster also served as the main airlift during the Korean War. Despite having been manufactured only between 1942 and 1947, 1164 of these were made:
- 655 at Orchard Place/Douglas Field
- 515 in Santa Monica, California
Douglas Aircraft Company’s C-54 Skymaster played a multitude of roles: as an air-sea rescuer, a medical transporter, a missile tracker, a scientific research aide, one of the first planes to transport the president of the United States, among others. The aircraft’s versatility, the numerous accidents it was involved in, and a couple of vanishing acts have made it an iconic aircraft of US history.
The origins of the Douglas C-54 Skymaster
In the middle of 1939, the major carriers in the United States (United Air Lines, American, and Eastern) and Douglas Aircraft Company felt that there was a need for a lighter variant of the DC-4: an aircraft with a similar capacity but structurally simpler. The engineering team decided not to redesign the DC-4, but came up with a new model altogether. Initial plans had it that the new DC-4 would have:
- A weight that was one-quarter less than the DC-4
- A design gross weight of 50,000 lbs
- Internal diameter of 118 inches
- Wing area: 1457 square feet
- Accommodation: “40 passengers by day-ten rows with two seats on each side of a central aisle or 28 passengers by night”
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The aircraft was going to have a fuselage of a circular cross-section. According to René J Francillon, the author of “McDonnell Douglas aircraft since 1920”, the following changes were also made:
“ The new wings, with constant taper on leading and trailing edges, had a centre-section of typical Douglas/Northrop construction with three spars while their outer panels were of single spar construction. The tricycle undercarriage one of the most successful features of the original Douglas four-engined transport- was retained for the new DC-4, although in a modified form as the main units retracted forward into the inboard engine nacelles instead of laterally into wing wells”
When it was initially offered to the operators, one could choose either of the following power-plants:
- Four 1,050 hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp SIC3-G fourteen-cylinder radials
- Four 1,000 hp Wright SGR-1820-G205A Cyclone nine-cylinder radials or.
The engines were later changed to four 1,450 hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp (R-2000) 2SD1-G fourteen-cylinder radials (after talk with the aforementioned airlines).
On September 1, 1939, World War II commenced. The war’s tragedies brought forth some of the most haunting poems there are, an example of which is the following:
And we talked of girls and dropping bombs on Rome,
And thought of the quiet dead and the loud celebrities
Exhorting us to slaughter, and the herded refugees:
Yet thought softly, morosely of them, and as indifferently
As of ourselves or those whom we
For years have loved…
This poem was written by Alun Lewis, one of the greatest World War poets, and someone who served as a lance corporal once stationed with the Royal Engineers at Longmoor, Hampshire. The World War battle would be aerial too, and Douglas Aircraft (and the revised version of the DC-4) would find itself at the thick of it.
Douglas aircraft received military orders for aircraft (from France, Britain, and the US Armed Forces). While Douglas stated that the production of its civil aircraft wouldn’t come in the way of delivering military planes, production of this new aircraft was taken over by the US Army Air Force. In his book, Francillion notes that “No DC-4 or C-54 prototype was built, and the first production aircraft, s/n 3050, serial 41-20137, was completed as a C-54-DO in February 1942” . This aircraft that was stylized militarily, first took to the skies on 14th February from Clover Field. John F. Martin was at the helm of aircraft operations.
Douglas C-54 Skymaster design and variants
The civilian aircraft Douglas DC-4 was first converted into the C-4, an aircraft type whose only 24 units were produced. Later came the C-54A, the first military variant, a heavy-lift aircraft type that had a more robust floor and an increased fuel capacity. The following table gives us a general idea of the other C-54 variants:
| Variant | Number produced | Notes |
| C-54B | 220 | Increased fuel capacity compared to the C-54 |
| C-54D | 380 | Same as C-54B but with R-2000-11 engines |
| C-54E | 125 | Changes to the fuel tanks and provision for swift transition from passenger to cargo |
| C-54 G | 400 orders placed, only 162 of which were completed* | Same as C-54E but with a different version of the R-2000 engine. |
* the rest were cancelled following the end of World War II.
According to marchfield.org, fourteen sub-variants of the Skymaster were produced, a few of which include the following:
- C-54M: a C-54E stripped out “to serve as a coal-carrier during the Berlin Airlift
- EC-54U: an electronic counter-measures platform
- JC-54D: modified for missile nose cone recovery and at least 14 sub-variants built for the US Navy.
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C-53C variant of the Skymaster
When the C-54C was introduced it became “the first aircraft purpose-built to fly the President of the United States”, which was heavily modified in line. The plane was designated “VC” and was dubbed “The Flying White House”. One of its unofficial nicknames was “Sacred Cow”, which was “a reference to the high security surrounding the aircraft and its special status”. Here’s how the National Museum of the United States Air Force talks about the evolution of the C-54C as a presidential transport:
“In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US president to fly in an airplane while in office when the Navy-owned, but civilian-operated Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, Dixie Clipper, transported the president to the Casablanca Conference. Preferring that the president be flown by an Army Air Forces aircraft and crew, Gen “Hap” Arnold, Commander of the USAAF, ordered that a Consolidated C-87, a transport version of the famous B-24 bomber, be converted to fly the Commander in Chief. When the Secret Service expressed doubts about the safety of the C-87, the USAAF turned to the Douglas Aircraft Company to build a military transport specifically to accommodate the special needs of the president.”
Here are a few notes on the technical aspects of the C-54C variant of the Skymaster:
- The fuselage of a C-54A fuselage was amalgamated to the wings of a C-54B. [This gave the C-54 C a greater fuel capacity].
- The unpressurized cabin had a rectangular bulletproof window. [Note: Rectangular windows were later found to be the reasons behind the early crashes of the first jetliner in the world – the deHavilland Comet]
- Featured an executive conference room
- An electric refrigerator in the galley
- A private lavatory next to the president’s seat
- A fold-down bed concealed behind the sofa.
In addition, the Sacred Cow also had a “battery-powered elevator was installed at the rear of the aircraft which allowed President Roosevelt to board the aircraft easily while in his wheelchair”.
Here are the specifications of The Flying White House [with serial number: 42-107451 and displayed as 42-72252 in the National Museum of the US Air Force]:
| Crew | Seven (plus 15 passengers) |
| Weight | 80,000 lbs. (loaded) |
| Maximum speed | 300 mph |
| Service Ceiling | 22,300 feet |
| Engines | 4 X Pratt and Whitney R-2000 engines |
| Power | 1,450 hp each |
| Range | 3,900 miles |
During the Second World War, USAF (United States Air Force) deployed thirteen variants of the Skymaster: 1,084 Skymasters were used during the war.
Use of the C-54 Skymaster during Second World War and other missions
During World War II, the Skymaster flew almost a million miles a month, conducting almost 20 round trips everyday. Remember that even the Concorde, the second supersonic airliner in the world, took almost three hours to cross the pond. Skymaster helped for support missions in the Pacific Theater, where “they participated in operations between India and China that required flights of supplies over the Himalayan Mountains”.
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By June 1945, Skymaster was serving in VRE-1, the first casualty evacuation squadron ever formed, as it helped evacuate the wounded from the Battle of Okinawa. The first Navy nurse to land at Okinawa, Jane Kendeigh, attend to, and took care of, the wounded in the flights. The campaign for Okinawa, which took place in parallel to the Battle of Okinawa, 16,599 casualties were evacuated through aircraft by Army Air Forces, the Navy, and – approximately 60% of them flown out by VRE-1. In comparison, Skymaster helped deliver 66,000 patients to the US during the Korean War. According to Wendover Airfield, five Douglas C-54 Skymasters provided essential air logistics support to the operations of the atomic mission.
The contribution of Douglas C-54 Skymaster during Berlin Airlift
After the end of the second world war, USSR imposed a blockade on the city of Berlin, making the city virtually impossible for the allies to access via road transportation. The blockade had started after hostility among USSR and Western allies over the issue of control of the various parts of Germany. The crisis commenced on June 24, 1948, and it was assessed that essential supplies would need to be airlifted to the city. According to thisdayinaviation.com, calculations showed that Berliners needed 17,00 calories per person per day to meet their energy demands:
“ … a grand total of 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk for children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese. In total, 1,534 tons were needed daily to keep the over two million people alive. Additionally, the city needed to be kept heated and powered, which would require another 3,475 tons of coal and gasoline.”
So, it was decided that all essentials would be airlifted to Berlin. At the zenith of this episode, that has been known as the Berlin Airlift, two planes dropped supplies each minute. By the end of the airlift (that took place on 30 September 1949), 2,326,406 tons had been supplied to Berlin: much of which included food, medicine, and coal. During the airlift, 101 aviators lost their lives. According to the 20th Air Force, the Berlin airlift “saved nearly 2.4 million Germans from the Soviet-controlled East Berlin in the late 1940s”.
Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a workhorse of the Berlin airlift, as it has been said that every 45 seconds this aircraft type delivered supplies to this great city of Germany. The Air & Space Forces magazine recalled that people who served in the World War II transitioned to the four-engined C-54s, “using mock air corridors, which were laid out across Montana’s landscape to simulate the approach to Berlin.”
Lieutenant Gail S. Halvorsen, a Utah native, alongside his fellow airmen, earned fame for dropping candy tied to parachutes out of their C-54 for the children of East Berlin. Gail’s efforts were known as “Operation Little Vittles”, and is often remembered as the “Candy Bomber”. Here’s author Francillion’s take on the work of the imperishable work of Skymaster during the airlift:
“.. at the peak of operations, 204 C-54s and 22 R5Ds with a further 110 Skymasters in training or undergoing maintenance were operating from Rhein-Main (Frankfurt) to Tempelhof (US zone) and from Fassberg to Gatow (British zone). A record was set on 16 April, 1949, (Easter Sunday) when American and British aircraft, of which C-54s contributed the majority, delivered 12,941 tons of supplies by 1,398 flights. As the main commodity flown was coal, thirty-eight C-54Es of MATS were specially modified as C-54Ms to carry this.”
Post World War operations and the retirement of Douglas C-54 Skymaster
The last C-54 was delivered in January 1946. On domestic routes in te US, Skymaster was operated by its three original sponsors:
- American Airlines (AA) on the New York-Chicago route, beginning operations on February 1946, and later on the New York – Los Angeles route.
- United Air Lines
- Eastern Air Lines
- Braniff’s in 1949-50
- Pan America and Australian National Airways on Trans-Pacific routes
..among others. Skymaster was also used in JATO (Jet Assist Take Off) flights out of La Paz, Bolivia. Air Congo also used the aircraft to carry out-sized cargo loads, thanks largely to Sabena’s engineering department, which attached a swing-tail to a Skymaster.
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C-54 Skymaster was operated by the USAF service until the 1970s, Later, Skymaster was designed for long-range trans-ocean transport. After the end of World War II, Douglas developed a pressurized version of C-54E Skymaster military transport known as XC-112, an aircraft with larger windows (rectangular) , longer, and powered by much more powerful four 2,100 hp Pratt and Whitney R-2800-34 radial engines. [After necessary testing, the aircraft entered service as DC-6.]
Conclusion
During its services, two Skymasters vanished, without a trace. On 26 January 1950, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster operated by the US Marina Corps (serial number: 42-72469) disappeared as it was headed to Montana from Alaska. According to the Aviation Safety Network, the plane, which had 44 people aboard, “took Amber Airway No.2 over Canada, but failed to arrive at its destination. Last radio contact was at 17:09 near Snag, YT”. In a similar vein, a Skymaster registered N4726V and operated by Facilities Management Corp. suffered a similar fate after the pilot reported “a bad fire in the no. 2 engine and stated that a ditching might become necessary”, with the probable cause being reported as “In-flight No.2 engine fire for an undetermined cause, resulting in ditching at sea.” These two extraordinary disappearances can’t be said to have brought the downfall of the Skymaster. Perhaps the development of pressurized aircraft did.