Airlift operations are not supposed to be as exciting as aerial dogfights or as threatening as bombing runs. According to airlift pioneer Lieutenant General William J. Tunner, "A successful airlift is about as glamorous as drops of water on a stone." But airlift operations, and the planes that support them, are essential to the successful outcome of modern war. Without transport planes delivering soldiers, weapons, trucks, food, fuel, communications equipment, and many other things to a war theater, a military’s ability to fight anywhere on Earth is compromised. In addition, airlift provides the military with a humanitarian capability to aid areas hit by famine or natural disasters or blockaded by war or enemies. In the United States, the airlift division (Military Air Transport Service) merged with Strategic Air Command’s refueling operations in 1992 to form Air Mobility Command (AMC). Combined, these two missions now afford the United States military the ability to fight anywhere in the world.

 

Airlift was not a mission concentrated on in the early years of flight, primarily because the small size of airplanes did not allow for large cargo or passenger loads. Then in the 1930s, Germany developed for Lufthansa Airlines the Junkers Ju.52 trimotor as an 18-seat airliner that could double as a transport or bomber for the Luftwaffe. When civil war broke out in Spain in 1936, Germany sent assistance to the Fascist Nationalists. Twenty Ju.52s were sent immediately to Spanish Morocco, where the main part of the Nationalist Army, including leader Francisco Franco, was trapped, unable to sail across the Strait of Gibraltar. Throughout August and September, the German transports airlifted the stranded troops to Seville, Spain. During 677 flights they transported 20,000 soldiers. From Seville, the Nationalist Army was able to expand and eventually defeat the Republicans and win the war.

 

With this first successful airlift, other nations rushed to develop their own transport planes. The British relied on transport-bombers, such as the Vickers Victoria. The United States developed transports that were modified airliners—the Douglas DC-3 was converted to the C-47 Skytrain by removing the airline interior and adding heavier floors and a large cargo door. The same plane with a smaller door was designated the C-53 Skytrooper and used for dropping paratroopers. By the time World War II began, all the combatant nations were equipped with transport planes which dropped paratroopers, carried troops and supplies, and supported the rapid movements across the European Theater.

 

In the China-Burma-India Theater, transport planes were used to supply China, which had been cut off by the Japanese capture of Burma in 1943. Run by the Air Transport Command, the planes flew from Allied bases in Assam, India, to Kunming, China. The route went over the Himalayan Mountains, nicknamed "the Hump." The five-hour, 700-mile (1127-kilometer) route was considered suicide by the pilots, with freak winds, monsoons, unpredicatble turbulence, and the most treacherous landscape on earth. Plus, the C-47s were not designed for flying at 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) altitude in temperatures sometimes as low as -60°F (-51°C). The controls became sluggish and carburetors froze. One Flying Tiger veteran who had transferred to the airlift testified, "Flying a P-47 in combat was not as dangerous as flying a C-47 across the Hump." Because pilots could go home after a specific number of flight hours, they would work 16-hour shifts with as many as three trips to China in a day. They were exhausted and stress levels ran high until Brigadier General William Tunner took command of the operation in September 1944. He focused on safety and efficiency and, although the tonnage transported was increased, there were fewer accidents.

 

At the time, the average plane carried 1,000 gallons (3,785 liters) of gasoline and 3,000 pounds (1,361 kilograms) of bombs. In 1944 these aircraft started returning to India with planeloads of Chinese troops, flying to join the Allied troops on Burma. And new planes with larger capacities, such as Douglas C-54 Skymaster, also began to arrive. By November 1944, they were flying 1,200 tons daily into China, which had been the total for an entire month in 1943. By the end of the war, the Hump pilots had flown 777,000 tons of supplies to keep China fighting, with a loss of only 910 men.

 

After the war, General Tunner and the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) oversaw the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and airlift operations during the Korean War. The first humanitarian airlift, Operation Vittles, delivered 2,325,808.7 tons of cargo such as coal, food, medical supplies, newspapers, and machinery, in 318 days to a blockaded West Berlin, saving the city from starvation or surrender to the Communists. During the Korean War, transport planes were supplemented by helicopters for the first time. They delivered cargo to cutoff units, dropped airborne troops, brought reinforcements, carried the wounded to hospitals in Japan and carried the living and dead back home to the United States. These planes dropped all types of cargo to units--food, gasoline, ammunition, warm clothing, medical supplies, and jeeps.

 

But their greatest test came at the beginning of the war during the winter of 1950, when the United Nations troops were retreating from the Chosin Reservoir. China had destroyed the 20-foot (6-meter) bridge that was needed for the retreat. General Tunner proposed an air evacuation for the 12,500 Marine and Army troops, but Marine Major General O.P. Smith refused, declaring, "We walked in here and we’re going to walk out." So American transports, aided by a Greek unit, airdropped a steel bridge. With careful, but quick, planning, they were successful. The bridge was released in eight sections, twice what was needed in the event of problems. The Marines recovered the pieces and by the end of the day, had constructed the bridge, allowing the troops, as well as cargo and refugees, to escape. "The bridge from the sky" earned unit citations for the transport unit and was featured on the cover of Time magazine, but more importantly, saved the lives of many.

 

Airplanes meeting the special demands of transport operations began to be built after the Berlin Airlift. Cargo planes must have large, unobstructed interiors, flat floors, be easy to load and unload and have strong walls and doors that can open in flight. They have to be able to take off from short runways and have landing gear to survive dirt landing strips. The first plane built to these specifications in the United States was the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which debuted in 1954 with a floor at truck-bed height, reverse-pitch propellers for braking on short runways, and special tires to support landings on unpaved runways. The McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III, which made its maiden flight on September 15, 1991, was designed to launch from short runways. And debuting during the Vietnam War was the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, the ultimate giant cargo plane--second in size only to the colossal Russian Antonov An-124, which is used mostly as a commercial plane. The Galaxy has room for two lanes of traffic and can carry 16 trucks, more than 24 compact cars, two Abrams tanks, six Apache helicopters, or 10 Pershing missiles. Its mammoth size makes global mobilization efficient and fast.

 

During the Gulf War in 1991, three-quarters of the cargo and a third of the personnel sent to the region were delivered on either C-5s or C-141 Starlifters. In the first 21 days, the C-5s alone carried a tonnage equivalent to what was carried during the entire Berlin Airlift. The effort was so massive one pilot said, "You could have walked across the Mediterranean on the wings of C-5s, C-141s, and the commercial aircraft moving across the region." And within the region, C-131s moved cargo and personnel. Air reserve and national guard units were activated to help, as was the Civil Reserve Air Fleet--a fleet of commercial airplanes called to aid in the airlift. The airlift operations were essential in giving the United States a major presence in an area where it had none and, when the action was over, in bringing everyone and everything home quickly.

 

Since the Gulf War, Air Mobility Command (AMC) has provided humanitarian aid around the world, including to Bosnia during the Balkan War. It has also helped American troops respond quickly to other hot spots around the world, especially landlocked areas aircraft carriers cannot reach. AMC C-17 Globemasters carried the first Marines into combat in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom in autumn 2001. The transport planes of AMC give America a global presence, both as a military power and a humanitarian helper. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said that "transport is the stem of the rose." It may not be beautiful, but it supports and provides sustenance to the blossom.

 

--Pamela Feltus

 

Sources and further reading:

Bakse, Colin. Airlift Tanker: History of U.S. Airlift & Tanker Forces. Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing Company, 1995.

Corum, James S. The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918-1940. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1997.

Gunston, Bill. History of Military Aviation. London: Hamlyn, 2000.

Hallion, Richard P. Storm Over Iraq: Air Power and the Gulf War. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Haulman, Daniel. The United States Air Force and Humanitarian Airlift Operations, 1947-1994. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1998.

Launius, Roger D. and Cross II, Coy F. MAC and the Legacy of the Berlin Airlift. Scott AFB, Ill.: Office of MAC History, April 1989.

Loeb, Vernon. "In War Effort, U.S. Relies on Strategic Airlifts." Washington Post, June 24, 2002, A13.

Murray, Williamson. War in the Air: 1914-1945. London: Cassell, 1999.

Perret, Geoffrey. Winged Victory: The Army Air Forces in World War II. New York: Random House, 1993.

Sugarman, Joe. "Breakout from Chosin." Air & Space, July 2000, 40-45.

Tunner, William H. Over the Hump. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pierce, 1964.

Yenne, Bill. Legends of Flight. Lincolnwood, Ill.: Publications International, 1997.

 

Air Mobility Command Museum: http://www.ancmuseum.org

Airlift/ Tanker Association: http://www.atalink.org

Berlin Airlift Veterans Association: http://www.konnections.com/airlift/index.html

USAF Fact Sheet on Air Mobility Command: http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/Air_Mobility_Command.html