These aircraft were known as the North Star in RCAF service. Early maniacasino aircraft had the -3 engines, later production had the -7. The C-54A was a fully militarized version of the DC-4, with a reinforced cargo floor, a large (2.38m by 1.7m) cargo door and built-in cargo loading hoist. The C-54 returned to combat during the Korean War, at first evacuating 851 American civilians from South Korean, and then as a transport and casualty evacuation aircraft. After necessary testing, the aircraft entered service as DC-6.

From Liner to Lifeline: The Douglas C-54 Skymaster Story

Over the next five years Air Transport Command Skymasters made 79,642 transoceanic flights, with only two forced ditching. The first C-54 Skymaster entered USAAF service on 20 March 1942, and by the end of the year enough had been delivered to begin to make a real impact. The resulting DC-4 had a circular fuselage, was powered by four engines, and used a tricycle undercarriage. The first had been judged to be too complex by the airlines, and in 1939 American, Eastern and United Air Lines got together with Douglas to draw up the specifications for a simpler machine.

  • The first C-54 to operate over the Pacific was an airplane that had been drawn off of the Atlantic route for a special airlift of B-24 stabilizers to Australia in response to an urgent requirement.
  • The original DC-4 had been conceived as a passenger-carrying airplane; production aircraft came from the factory with fixed seats and a floor that lacked the reinforcement necessary to transport heavy cargo.
  • Navy service (C-54Q, BuNo 56501, of the Navy Test Pilot School, NAS Patuxent River) was retired on 2 April 1974.
  • The newly established need for long-range transports became so great that when the Army received its first Consolidated B-24 Liberators 11 were converted into transports even though the type had been developed to fill a requirement for a long-range bomber to replace the Boeing B-17.
  • The Pratt & Whitney engines allowed the Skymaster to fly over the most hostile terrains and weather conditions, showcasing its impressive resilience and power.

His rationale was that the C-54 was a safer airplane and its use would drastically reduce the accident rate on the Hump airlift. In short, the capture of Myitkyina led to the attaining of air superiority over Burma—and opened the door for the introduction of the C-54 to the Hump airlift. Army provisional force under the command of Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill began an unannounced and initially unheralded walk into northern Burma.

C-53C variant of the Skymaster

There were 14 passengers and air crew on board from the U.S. The airplane was en route to a classified destination referred to as "Watertown" (now known as the Area 51 test site in Nevada) from Burbank, California. On 23 July 1954, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster civilian airliner, registration VR-HEU, operated by Cathay Pacific Airways, en route from Bangkok to Hong Kong, was shot and heavily damaged by Chinese PLAAF Lavochkin La-11 fighters off the coast of Hainan Island. All of the 14 people on board (two pilots, nine mechanics and three other military personnel) were killed. Navy, many C-54s were modified for use in civilian firefighting and air tanker roles. By January 1946, Pan American Airways was operating their Skymasters on transatlantic scheduled services to Europe and beyond.

The Skymaster’s Limitations

Initial purchase costs were more than half a million dollars in 1940, and even though production costs dropped the cost per airplane was still more than a quarter of a million dollars in 1945. The C-54 was the result of a prewar civilian design that the Douglas Aircraft Company developed as a successor to its highly successful DC-3. By mid-1945 the C-54 had come to symbolize the modern international airline system, a system that linked the entire world and reduced travel times from weeks and months to days and even hours. The Douglas C-54 Skkymaster served around the globe during World War II and accelerated the growth of peacetime air travel. Eight United States airmen died when their plane exploded in the rugged Riff Mountains of North Africa. The transport crashed in the Gomor district near the border, between French and Spanish Morocco.

The Bear: TU-95 Strategic Bomber and Reconnaissance Aircraft

They managed to walk through several hundred miles of jungle and rough terrain and then captured the airfield in August, after almost six months in the field. Since it had been designed for airline use where it would receive regular maintenance, the C-54 suffered greatly from mechanical problems when it was operated under austere conditions such as those existing on the India-China ferry. The high altitudes required for the Hump fliers precluded the assignment of the C-54 to operations into China at the time. By 1943 the towering Himalayas were a frequent sight for ATC crews on their way to and from airfields in eastern India. Although the airplane was easy to fly and reliable, its high-altitude performance was limited.

Douglas C-54 Skymaster

  • 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.”
  • C-54 Skymaster was operated by the  USAF service until the 1970s, Later, Skymaster was designed for long-range trans-ocean transport.
  • Since the new bases in the Marianas were on islands, the massive numbers of transport forces that had deployed to India with them were not needed, so Arnold transferred them to Tunner’s command.
  • Designated as the C-54A, the new version did not become available for military testing until February 1943.
  • One notable exception saw the Presidential VC-54C, accompanied by 33 other four-engined transports, take President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference.
  • The pilot was able to ditch the aircraft, and whilst ten people on board were killed as a result of the attack, another nine were rescued by a USAF Grumman HU-16 Albatross Air-Sea Rescue plane.
  • It was not until 1942 that the new airliner was ready for its first flight, and by that time the country was at war.

The following batch of aircraft, designated C-54A, were built with a stronger floor and a cargo door with a hoist and winch. To meet military requirements, the first civil production aircraft had four additional auxiliary fuel tanks in the main cabin, which reduced the number of passenger seats to 26. Besides transport of cargo, the C-54 also carried presidents, prime ministers, and military staff. They served in air-sea rescue operations, scientific and military research, missile tracking, and recovery.

Tunner’s initial goal was for a force of 272 Skymasters on the airlift, but the war ended before it was met. Between April and June 1942 the military air transportation system underwent a major overhaul as existing air transportation units were turned into troop-carrying organizations and a new Air Transport Command was established, using the headquarters for the prewar Air Corps Ferrying Command. All the DC-4 production that had been ordered by the airlines was appropriated for military use, and it was not until the end of the war that the four-engine transport finally put on airline paint. Although the attack had severely damaged the aircraft, necessitating the shutdown of engines number three and four, the pilot in command of the aircraft managed to carry out a safe emergency landing at Tempelhof Airport. The C-54 was one of the most commonly used long-range transports by the U.S. armed forces in World War II.