I tracked down some information I thought interesting. Probably some of you may have known about it already.

On the 29th of August, a Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was to have flown once again.
The aircraft is N199AB and was in storage at the
Cargomaster Corporation up in Anchorage, Alaska. Can anyone verify the flight...and how it went.

I picked up the above information from the Old Props site in its News Section.

Doug

Doug,

Just over a week ago, I was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and was talking to the guy who is heading up the restoration of the C-133 for the AMC Museum there. He said he talked regularly to the guys in Alaska and he confirmed that the C-133 had flown at Anchorage. He said that the guys up in Alaska had won a contract to airlift 90 school buses to somewhere upstate. If so, it should be flying a fair bit in the near future.

Andy

I had an e-mail from a fellow working on the PANC runway, the day of the 30-min flight on 29 Aug. He followed up with another message that the airplane hauled a firetruck to Barrow on the 30th. And the school bus info is another interesting bit.

Cal Taylor
The C-133 Project
http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/c133bcargomaster/home.html

To Cal Taylor:

Dear Cal,

I just took a look at your site. Before going there I thought the Douglas C-133 was just another big
airplane among many the military had in its inventory. As a matter of fact I knew next to nothing about the aircraft until my friend Lee introduced me to it on this site, and even then I really had no handle on its mission and or how that mission was carried out. After my look at your web site I know more, I now have great respect for that aircraft and the crew who made it fly. I am also amazed at the loads the C-133 could muscle off the ground. A fire truck and a school bus being hauled by this giant is indeed a story of interest, but compared with the other loads this mighty aircraft hauled and protected, well there is no comparison.

The best of luck with your book. My admiration goes out to you and your mates who put the pointy end in the correct direction...and to the airplane itself. When you next stand along side one please give it a pat for me.

All the best,

Doug Vernon

Dear Doug,
It is the C-133 folks in its early years who really deserve the praise and attention. Those were the years when they appeared to be falling out of the sky, or when most flights involved a prop failure and/or an engine shutdown. Nose case failures were sometimes spectacular events, with a gout of flame extending forward pqast the copilot's startled eyes.

In those years, C-133s were moving heavy cargo from ICBMs to earth movers, groceries for Thule to new Thor missiles to Engalnd. THe C-133 went to the COngo, all over the Middle East and Europe, New Zealand a few times, Japan, Alaska, Puerto Rice, you name it. It had a key role in the space program for Gemini and Apollo.

By my time, 1969-71, the problems were mostly solved and the airplane did its thing pretty dependably.But, it was worn out. THe AF extended its life a few mnonths, due to delays in getting C-5s off the line, but all C-133s were gone from active duty by Aug 71. And forgotten in the years since.

My first duty station as a newly minted aircraft mechanic right out of tech school was to a C-124 organizational maintenance squadron at Dover AFB in 1968. We shared the flight line with C-133's and C-141's. Old Shakey was a maintenance hog as it was, but those C-133 ground crews really had it hard, working 12 hour shifts. We had it easy by comparison, with 8 hour shifts, 4 days on, 2 days off.