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XC-99 .
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Photo: Robert Deering 1986 Kelly AFB (SKF) San Antonio, Texas |
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The Convair XC-99, AF Ser. No. 43-52436, is a prototype heavy cargo
aircraft built
by Convair for
the United
States Air Force. It was the largest
piston-engined land-based transport aircraft
ever built, and was developed from
the Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber, sharing
the wings and some other structures with it.
The first flight was on 24 November 1947
in San Diego, California, and after testing
it was delivered to the Air Force on 26 May
1949. The Convair Model 37 was a planned civil
passenger variant based on the XC-99 but was
not built.
Design capacity
of the XC-99 was 100,000 lb (45,000 kg) of
cargo or 400 fully equipped soldiers on its double
cargo decks. A cargo lift was installed for
easier loading. The engines face rearward in
a pusher configuration.
In July 1950, the XC-99 flew its first cargo
mission, "Operation Elephant." It
transported 101,266 pounds (45,933 kg) of
cargo, including engines and propellers for
the B-36, from San Diego to Kelly Air Force
Base in San Antonio, Texas, a record it
would later break when it lifted 104,000 lb
(47,200 kg) from an airfield at 5,000 ft
(1,500 m) elevation. In August 1953, the
XC-99 would make its longest flight,
12,000 mi (19,000 km), to Rhein-Main Air
Base, Germany,
by way of Kindley Air Force
Base, Bermuda and Lajes Field in the Azores.
It carried more than 60,000 lb (27,000 kg)
each way. It attracted much attention
everywhere it flew.
The US Air Force determined that it had no
need for such a large, long-range transport
at that time, and no more were ordered. The
sole XC-99 served until 1957, including much
use during the Korean War. It made twice
weekly trips from Kelly AFB to the aircraft
depot at McClellan Air Force
Base, California, transporting supplies and
parts for the B-36 bomber while returning by
way of other bases or depots making pick-ups
and deliveries along the way. During its
operational life, the XC-99 logged over
7,400 hours total time, and transported more
than 60 million pounds (27,000 metric tons)
of cargo. The aircraft made its last flight
on 19 March 1957, landing at Kelly Air Force
Base, where it would remain for the next 47
years. The then-United States Air Force
Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base near Dayton, Ohio, requested that the
aircraft be flown there for display, but the
Air Force refused due to the $7,400 cost of
the flight.
Disassembly of the aircraft began at Kelly
Field in April 2004. and the airframe was
moved in pieces from Kelly to the National
Museum of the United States Air
Force (NMUSAF) at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base. By the summer of 2008, the transfer
was complete and the parts were lying
outside the museum. The aircraft had
continued to suffer additional corrosion
during its years in Texas and was found to
be in worse condition than expected, with
the restoration task being beyond the
resources of the museum in a realistic time
scale. Some major components such as the
wing spar would need to be completely
replaced.
The NMUSAF's plans for the restoration and
display of the XC-99 are displayed in a case
with a 1:72 scale model made by Lt Col
Howard T. Meek, USAF (Ret).
In an effort to preserve the aircraft for
future restoration, the XC-99 was later
moved incrementally to the 309th Aerospace
Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309
AMARG) storage facility at Davis–Monthan Air
Force Base, in Tucson, Arizona, where it
will remain, in an area containing other
aircraft belonging to the NMUSAF until the
museum is able to restore it. In
2014, Lieutenant General John L.
Hudson, USAF (Ret), director of the NMUSAF
said that there would be insufficient
resources for restoration for the
foreseeable future.
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USAF Photo |
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The images below and at the top of the page were captured from a VHS video tape from 1986. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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