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| C-133 Cargomaster | |
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| Douglas C-133B Cargomaster 59-0529 (1501st Air Transport Wing) over San Francisco Bay | |
| Role | Cargo aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Douglas Aircraft Company |
| Retired | 1971 |
| Primary users | United States Air Force NASA |
| Produced | 1956-1961 |
| Number built | 50 |
The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was a large cargo aircraft built between 1956 and 1961 by the Douglas Aircraft Company for use with the United States Air Force. The C-133 was the USAF's only production turboprop-powered strategic airlifter, entering service shortly after Lockheed's more well-known C-130 Hercules. It provided airlift services in a wide range of applications for most of two decades.
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Design and development
The C-133 was designed to meet the requirements for the USAF's Logistic Carrier Support System SS402L for a new strategic transport.1 The aircraft differed considerably from the C-74 and C-124 Globemasters that had preceded it. A high-mounted wing, external blister fairings on each side for the landing gear, and rear-loading and side-loading doors ensured that access to, and the volume of, the large cargo compartment were not compromised by these structures. The cargo compartment (90 feet in length and 12 feet high) was pressurized, heated, and ventilated.
The Cargomasters went directly into production as C-133A; no prototypes were built. The first Cargomaster flew on 23 April 1956.2 The first C-133As were delivered to the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) in August 1957 and began flying MATS air routes throughout the world. Two C-133s established transatlantic speed records for transport aircraft on their first flights to Europe. The fleet of 50 aircraft proved itself invaluable during the Vietnam War, The Cargomaster soldiered on until the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy entered service in the early 1970s. The C-133 was then retired and most airplanes were cut up as soon as they were delivered to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on their final flight in 1971.
Fifty aircraft (32 C-133A and 18 C-133B) were constructed and put into service with the USAF. A single C-133A and a C-133B were built and kept at Douglas Long Beach as "test articles." They had no construction numbers or USAF tail numbers.
The C-133 had large tail doors and side doors and a large, open cargo area. With the C-133B, the rear cargo doors were modified to open to the side (petal doors), making an opening large enough to transport ballistic missiles such as the Atlas, Titan and Minuteman more cheaply, safely and quickly than road transport. Several hundred Minuteman and other ICBMs were airlifted to and from their operational bases by C-133s. The C-133 also transported Atlas, Saturn and Titan rockets to Cape Canaveral for use as launch boosters in the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo space programs. After the Apollo capsules splashed down, they were airlifted in C-133s from Norfolk Naval Station, Virginia or Hickam AFB, Hawaii to Ellington AFB, Texas, or to California.
The C-133 was for many years the only USAF aircraft capable of hauling very large or very heavy cargo. Despite the C-124 Globemaster II's capabilities, there was much cargo that it could not carry because of its configuration with a cargo deck 13 ft (4 m) off the ground and its lower, though substantial, engine power.
By 1971, shortly before the introduction of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, the Cargomaster was obsolete as well as being worn out, and all were withdrawn from service in 1971. The C-133 was originally a 10,000-hour airframe that had been life-extended to 19,000 hours. Severe vibration had caused critical stress corrosion of the airframes to the point that the aircraft was beyond economical operation any longer. The Air Force managed to keep as many of the C-133 fleet in service as possible until the C-5 finally entered squadron service.
Records
C-133s set a number of unofficial records, including records for military transport aircraft on trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes. Among the longest were non-stop flights from Tachikawa AB, Japan to Travis AFB, CA (17:20 hours on 22 May 1959, 5150mi. 297.2mph)and Hickam AFB, HI to Dover AFB, DE in about sixteen hours (4850mi 303.1mph). The only FAI officially-sanctioned record was in December 1958, when C-133A 62008 lifted a payload of 117,900 pounds (53,480 kg) to an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m) at Dover AFB, DE.
Operators
- 1607th Air Transport Wing (MATS)
- Redesignated: 436th Military Airlift Wing (MAC), 8 January 1966
- 1st and 39th Military Airlift Squadrons (MAS), Dover AFB, Delaware (1956-1971) 32 C-133A Aircraft
- 1501st Air Transport Wing (MATS)
- Redesignated: 60th Military Airlift Wing (MAC), 8 January 1966
- 84th Military Airlift Squadron (MAS), Travis AFB, California (1959-1971) 18 C-133B Aircraft
- Cargomaster Corporation, Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, Alaska
Accidents and incidents
Of fifty aircraft built, nine were lost in crashes and one was destroyed in a ground fire. Despite numerous myths and legends, the primary causes of most of the in-flight losses were most likely related to the C-133's stall characteristics.3
- 54-0140, 1607 ATW, Destroyed 10 Jan 1965, crashed into water after takeoff, Wake Island.
- 54-0146, 1607 ATW, Destroyed 13 Apr 1958, crashed 26 miles S of Dover AFB, DE
- 56-2002, 1607 ATW, Destroyed 22 Sep 1963, crashed into Atlantic Ocean near Shad Intersection, SE of Dover AFB, DE. Aircraft apparently stalled near top of climb to cruising altitude.
- 56-2005, 1607 ATW, Destroyed 13 Jul 1963 during refueling ground fire, Dover AFB, DE.
- 56-2014, 1607 ATW, Destroyed 07 Nov 1964 in crash on takeoff at Goose Bay, Labrador. Most probable cause a power stall on takeoff due to icing or possibly aerodynamic instability of the aircraft.
- 57-1611, 1607 ATW, Destroyed 27 May 1962. Crashed into water near Shad Intersection, east of Dover AFB, DE.
- 57-1614, 1501 ATW, Destroyed 11 Jun 1961, crashed into water off Japan
- 59-0523, 1501 ATW, Destroyed 10 Apr 1963, crashed while in traffic pattern, Travis AFB, CA
- 59-0530, 60 MAW, Destroyed 6 Feb 1970, disintegrated in flight over NW Nebraska, due to catastrophic propagation of old 11 in (280 mm) skin crack hidden under paint to a total length of 17 ft (5.2 m). Large sections of skin peeled off into the engines and the aircraft came apart at 23,000 ft.
- 59-0534, 1501 ATW, Destroyed 30 Apr 1967, ditched off of east coast of Okinawa, Japan after propellers became stuck in fixed pitch due to electrical problems in either propeller control or propeller power circuits.
Aircraft on display
- C-133A 56-2011 and 56-1998 were flown to the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ. There, they were used in aircraft fire research. One remains there, while the other was scrapped in 2003.
- C-133A 56-2008 is preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. On December 16, 1958 this aircraft established a world record for propeller-driven aircraft by carrying a payload of 117,900 pounds to an altitude of 10,000 feet. It was flown to the Museum on March 17, 1971.
- C-133A 56-2009 is at the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum (ex-Chanute AFB) in Rantoul, Illinois
- C-133B 59-0527 is in the collection of the Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona.
- C-133B 59-0536 is located at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover AFB, Delaware. This aircraft had been at the Strategic Air Command Museum for many years and was donated to the AMC museum when the SAC museum moved in the late 1990s to its new location.
- C-133B 59-0529 was at the New England Air Museum. However, a tornado swept through the museum in 1979, badly damaging many aircraft in the outdoor display collection, including the C-133.
- Two C-133As have been in storage at Mojave Airport, California, since the 1970s. They are N201AR (ex-56-2001) and N136AR (ex-54-0136). They are owned by Cargomaster Corp, based at Ted Stevens International Airport, AK.
- Cargomaster Corp also owns C-133A N199AB (ex-56-1999). That aircraft was never certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration for civilian operation, and could only be flown as a government aircraft, mostly for the State of Alaska. N199AB was based at ANC. It was flown as a transport until 2004 carrying cargo such as pipeline sections, it flew fire trucks and heavy equipment to the Alaskan bush in April 2006, and on August 2008 it flew its last flight - to the museum at Travis AFB5.
- C-133A-25-DL 56-2009 Is on Display at the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum In Rantoul, Illinois
Specifications (C-133B)
This aircraft article is missing some (or all) of its specifications. If you have a source, you can help Wikipedia by adding them.Data from 6
General characteristics
- Crew: six (two pilots, two engineers, navigator, loadmaster)
- Payload: 110,000 lb (50,000 kg)
- Length: 157 ft 6 in (48.0 m)
- Wingspan: 179 ft 8 in (54.8 m)
- Height: 48 ft 3 in (14.7 m)
- Wing area: 2,673.1 ft² (248.34 m²)
- Empty weight: 109,417 lb (49,631 kg)
- Loaded weight: 275,000 lb (125,000 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 275,000 lb (C-133A) / 286,000 lb (C-133B) (125,000 kg (C-133A) / 130,000 kg (C-133B))
- Powerplant: 4× Pratt & Whitney T34-P-9W turboprops, 7,500 shp (5,586 kW) each
- * Cargo deck : 86 ft 10 in (26.47 m)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 312 kt (359 mph / 578 km/h)
- Cruise speed: 280 kt (322 mph / 519 km/h)
- Range: 3,560 nm with 52,000 lb (23,587 kg) payload (4,097 mi / 6,590 km)
- Service ceiling 32,300 ft (9,800 m)
See also
Comparable aircraft
References
- ^ Norton 2004, p.46.
- ^ Francillion 1979, p.552.
- ^ a b C-133 Tail Numbers
- ^ C-133 Units
- ^ Last C-133 flight, Travis AFB airshow, 30 Aug 2008
- ^ The Aviation Zone (2005). "C-133 Cargomaster Specifications". Retrieved 28 August 2005.
- Norton, Bill. "Forgotten Airlifter: The Short-Lived Douglas C-133 Cargomaster". Air Enthusiast, Number 110, March/April 2004. Stamford, Lincs, UK: Key Publishing. ISSN 0143 5450. pp.45—53.
- Francillion, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920. London:Putnam, 1979. ISBN 0-370-00050-1.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: C-133 Cargomaster |
- The Air Mobility Command Museum
- Remembering An Unsung Giant - The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster and Its People
- Fact Sheets : Douglas C-133A Cargo Master National Museum of the USAF.
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- This page was last modified on 3 January 2009, at 05:02.
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