C-133 Cargomaster

Infobox Aircraft
name = C-133 Cargomaster

---

caption =
type = Cargo aircraft
national origin = United States
manufacturer = Douglas Aircraft Company
designer =
first flight =
introduced =
retired = 1971
status =
primary user = United States Air Force
more users = NASA
produced = 1956-1961
number built = 50
unit cost =
variants with their own articles =

The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was a large cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company between 1956 and 1961 for use with the United States Air Force.

Design and development

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the introduction of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, the Cargomaster was obsolete as well as being worn out, and all were withdrawn from service in 1971.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 the C-133 fleet to keep as many as possible in service 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

;USA
* United States Air Force
* 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. One aircraft (C-133A AF Ser. No. 62-0014), lost at Goose Bay, Labrador, on 7 November 1964, crashed on take-off because of ice accumulation on the wings. Electrical problems led to the ditching of C-133B AF Ser. No. 59-0534 near Okinawa on 30 April 1967. The last crash, of C-133B AF Ser. No. 59-0530 on 6 February 1970, was caused by the sudden propagation of an 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. Despite these sad events, many crew members served for years in the C-133, accumulating flying time of 5,000 hours or more in the type.

Aircraft on display

* C-133A 62-0011 and 61-0998 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 62-0008 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 62-0009 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-62-0001) 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 of 2006, and on August of 2008 it flew its last flight - to the museum at Travis AFB [ [http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/index.php/topic,12021.msg200033.html#msg200033 Last C-133 flight, Travis AFB airshow, 30 Aug 2008] ] .

*C-133A-25-DL 56-2009 Is on Display at the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum In Rantoul, Illinois

pecifications (C-133B)

aircraft specifications
plane or copter?=plane
jet or prop?=prop
ref=The Aviation Zone (2005). [http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c133_specs.asp "C-133 Cargomaster Specifications".] Retrieved 28 August 2005.]
crew=six (two pilots, two engineers, navigator, loadmaster)
capacity=
payload main=110,000 lb
payload alt=50,000 kg
length main= 157 ft 6 in
length alt= 48.0 m
span main= 179 ft 8 in
span alt= 54.8 m
height main= 48 ft 3 in
height alt= 14.7 m
area main= 2,673.1 ft²
area alt= 248.34 m²
airfoil=
empty weight main= 109,417 lb
empty weight alt= 49,631 kg
loaded weight main= 275,000 lb
loaded weight alt= 125,000 kg
useful load main=
useful load alt=
max takeoff weight main= 275,000 lb (C-133A) / 286,000 lb (C-133B)
max takeoff weight alt= 125,000 kg (C-133A) / 130,000 kg (C-133B)
more general=
* Cargo deck : 86 ft 10 in (26.47 m)
engine (prop)= Pratt & Whitney T34-P-9W
type of prop= turboprops
number of props=4
power main= 7,500 shp
power alt= 5,586 kW
power original=
max speed main=312 kt
max speed alt= 359 mph / 578 km/h
cruise speed main= 280 kt
cruise speed alt=322 mph / 519 km/h
stall speed main=
stall speed alt=
never exceed speed main=
never exceed speed alt=
range main= 3,560 nm with 52,000 lb (23,587 kg) payload
range alt=4,097 mi / 6,590 km
ceiling main= 32,300 ft
ceiling alt= 9,800 m
climb rate main=
climb rate alt=
loading main=
loading alt=
thrust/weight=
power/mass main=
power/mass alt=
more performance=
armament=
avionics=

ee also

aircontent
related=
similar aircraft=
* C-130 Hercules
lists=
see also=

References

External links

* [http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/c133bcargomaster/home.html "Remembering An Unsung Giant - The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster and Its People"]

[http://boeing377.googlepages.com/c133] Last Flight, C 133