My dad was a C-124 pilot. He told me when the C-133 came out all the pilots wanted to transfer to the pressurized 133. After a few crashed into the ocean 100 miles out everybody wanted back to the C-124.
Bob Stackhouse, MSGT, Flight Engineer, USAF Retired.I was a new student flight engineer in 1957 when the first C133s were delivered to Dover. I was also on the recovery team to help recover the crew from the first one to crash into the marshes south of the base on a test flight. I elected to fly the C-124 as an engineer and went on to transition into the new C-141A. I retired in 1974 with over 16,000 flight hours in four engine cargo type aircraft. The C-141 was by far the safest, most reliable aircraft I ever had the pleasure to fly in. (B-29, C-47, C-54, C-118, C-97, C-131, T-39, C-124A&C, C-141A
Salute to you, Bob. That's an incredible inventory of aircraft you flew on. I enlisted in Nov 65, did 30 years total including Vietnam in 68-69 and a scarier tour at the Pentagon in the 90s. LOL Cheers, Bob Powell (CMSgt, USAF Ret.)
Hey bob, I was stationed in Dover 1968 till early 1970 worked on the c133, c141 and the c124 I was in aircraft structure repair. I’m sure we crossed paths at some point. Thanks for the video it was great.
1965 I was transferred to Dover afb, to work on the 133 in the inspection hangers and I really enjoyed working on them, then we started to lose them over the water and it took a while to figure out the problem, the props were reversing in flight once that was fixed the airplane went on a lot of missions.
I never got to see a C-133A aircraft and I guess the C-141's took their place in transporting cargo and personnel. I worked on the C-141's and C-5's during my time in the military and rode on the C-97's and C-124's while stationed at Barksdale AFB.
I did a GCA on a C133 into Ramey AFB PR its number was 007 atill have a picture of it leaving Ramey was toold months later it crashed in Tailand with loss of all on board.
My dad also flew this C133 and he told me many stories about this plane when I took him to wright Patterson AFB and he had seen the all the 133s their he had flown and also hauled the very firs atlas ballistic missile and said that it was just him and the engineer for the missile that was on the plane because they weren’t sure at the time if it would blow up or not he would tell me they would fly own the coast into Mexico and then head back over the mountain range their where it was below 10,000 feet ago he said that’s how every Mission was flown he also hauled the first titan missile at the time he was one of three pilots that had over 10,000 flying hours in 1500 combat flying hours in World War II and Korea
There were not that many of them built originally to haul ICBM missile components. For unexplained reasons too many of them encountered problems on long haul overwater flight and had to ditch which with a high wing usually submerged the fuselage. I met one aircraft commander who survived a ditching when the aircraft broke apart and flipped over just forward of the wings on ditching. Obviously crews were reluctant to fly it.
Superb video of the 1950's airlift systems MATS. It's kind of funny, did Lockheed steal the style of the C-133 A for the C-130 Hercules. They both look a little alike in the frontal fuselage.
The original C-130s had the "roman nose" which looked considerably different than the later one we are all familiar with. Only the first few batches of the C-130A had the old nose.
I read that the C-133's were taken out of service and sent to the boneyard in 1971. Surprisingly aviation writer Bill Gunston said in at least two of his books that they flew on with the USAF until the late Seventies. How he missed that one I don't know.
Worked on them at Dover AFB 67-70 Avionics Tech. We all dreaded to be assigned to one which just returned from a long flight (SEA, Europe) since it would usually have many carry forwarded avionics issues. Working on those high wings and engines was dangerous. Many a cold, wet, windy night was spent on them. Remember once a departing 133 had a stall warning error (high risk flight system) which I met on the run way. Checked it out don,t remember what I did. It appeared OK. Flight crew said fine your coming with us on the test/training runs which was circling Dover and doing touch and gos. Remember being a little nervous.😳😱. It turned out fine. 👌💯 🗽🇺🇸
I was stationed at Kelly AFB (1955-57) In the 1700th Test Squadron. We flight tested turboprop engines on conventional aircraft. (2 C-131's, 2 C-97's, 2 C-121's) . The engines were changed after every 10 hours of flight. Eventually rising to 100 hours. All the testing we did led to the development of the C-133. Twelve (10 Maintenance and 2 Flight Engineers) of us were picked to go to the Douglas Aircraft Co. in Long Beach, California, to attend classes on all the systems of the C-133. Then we were sent to Edwards to learn more. Our outfit was disbanded in late 1957 and we were sent to Dover. We had to work on C-124's until the C-133's came to the Base.
I remember watching these things lumber into Scott AFB (Scott 'Field') in the 60s early 70s at the latest, along with a few C-133s... mostly C-130s, and then C-141s. Of course, that's when the 124s and 133s went the way of the Dodo.
A rare film of a little-known MATS transport...it was one of a few, if not the only, aircraft of the time that could carry the first small medium range missiles, such as the Douglas Thor. I had a rare opportunity to go inside one briefly at the SAC museum when it was still at Offutt AFB, Omaha. Sadly it had a poor safety record early on, until they sorted out its problems. Then late in its career, airframe fatigue led to airframe failures in flight. I believe the last inflight airframe failure was in 1970 over southwest Nebraska, where the airframe crackedand failed.
Erik, I met a guy who's company stole 2 C-133's from the boneyard and took them to Alaska to haul pipe for the pipeline, true story! The mechanic working for the company figured out why they were crashing. The planes vibration shook all the flight equipment off the walls of the plane. He secured it better and these planes flew till they developed stress cracks.
@@scuddrunner1 They didn't "steal" them, they were purchased. Getting them approved for air worthiness was a different issue. A number of those transferred to civilian hands never ended up flying again and sat around for two decades before being scrapped. The vibration was a huge issue with the -133 however, and it was never really corrected or resolved.
@@clownshow5901 : On the whole it would have to be considered a Douglas Aircraft Company failure. One of the very few that ever occurred with Douglas aircraft.
Only saw one of these, on the parking ramp at DM. They had either pulled it out of MASDC or were putting it in. It was impressive. At the time I thought it might be an early 141 but no, it was a different animal all together. I always wondered what happened to them. We flew on C130’s frequently enough but never on a 133.
The only thing i recall when i was in the USAF 1956-1960 They had no idea if the C-124 would be able to fly. Considering the short wings, available power from the engines, and of course the humongous SIZE of a C-124 I stood next to one while in Iceland.........it was "HUGE". A crew member popped his head out thru a hatch above the cockpit and we tried talking "regular" We had to raise our voices a bit, considering how far away we were from each other..........and there were NO noises near us at the time.
C-124 and C-133 were both Douglas products. A -124 was the original test bed for the engines that went into the -133 (they also used a couple C-97s). This film shows a fast image of the proposed XC-132, which was a full jet version of the C-133, but it was never built. The C-141 and C-5 both supplanted it very quickly. The -133 was designed in the early 50s.
God how I would love to write and narrate these propaganda films. What fun. Even now for those that know what I am referring to, it's great fun to turn the sound off and make your own.
My dad was a C-124 pilot. He told me when the C-133 came out all the pilots wanted to transfer to the pressurized 133. After a few crashed into the ocean 100 miles out everybody wanted back to the C-124.
Koi
Bob Stackhouse, MSGT, Flight Engineer, USAF Retired.I was a new student flight engineer in 1957 when the first C133s were delivered to Dover. I was also on the recovery team to help recover the crew from the first one to crash into the marshes south of the base on a test flight. I elected to fly the C-124 as an engineer and went on to transition into the new C-141A. I retired in 1974 with over 16,000 flight hours in four engine cargo type aircraft. The C-141 was by far the safest, most reliable aircraft I ever had the pleasure to fly in. (B-29, C-47, C-54, C-118, C-97,
C-131, T-39, C-124A&C, C-141A
Thanks for your service to our great nation Bob Stackhouse !
Salute to you, Bob. That's an incredible inventory of aircraft you flew on. I enlisted in Nov 65, did 30 years total including Vietnam in 68-69 and a scarier tour at the Pentagon in the 90s. LOL Cheers, Bob Powell (CMSgt, USAF Ret.)
Hey bob, I was stationed in Dover 1968 till early 1970 worked on the c133, c141 and the c124 I was in aircraft structure repair. I’m sure we crossed paths at some point. Thanks for the video it was great.
1965 I was transferred to Dover afb, to work on the 133 in the inspection hangers and I really enjoyed working on them, then we started to lose them over the water and it took a while to figure out the problem, the props were reversing in flight once that was fixed the airplane went on a lot of missions.
I never got to see a C-133A aircraft and I guess the C-141's took their place in transporting cargo and personnel. I worked on the C-141's and C-5's during my time in the military and rode on the C-97's and C-124's while stationed at Barksdale AFB.
Today the MATS is known as the Military Airlift Command.
The widowmaker. 50 were built, ten crashed. Love the film clip.
I was going to take a hop from Ton Son Nut to Clark. My boss told me me "Don't ride that C-13323." I didn't. It never made it to Clark either.
I did a GCA on a C133 into Ramey AFB PR its number was 007 atill have a picture of it leaving Ramey was toold months later it crashed in Tailand with loss of all on board.
My dad also flew this C133 and he told me many stories about this plane when I took him to wright Patterson AFB and he had seen the all the 133s their he had flown and also hauled the very firs atlas ballistic missile and said that it was just him and the engineer for the missile that was on the plane because they weren’t sure at the time if it would blow up or not he would tell me they would fly own the coast into Mexico and then head back over the mountain range their where it was below 10,000 feet ago he said that’s how every Mission was flown he also hauled the first titan missile at the time he was one of three pilots that had over 10,000 flying hours in 1500 combat flying hours in World War II and Korea
There were not that many of them built originally to haul ICBM missile components. For unexplained reasons too many of them encountered problems on long haul overwater flight and had to ditch which with a high wing usually submerged the fuselage. I met one aircraft commander who survived a ditching when the aircraft broke apart and flipped over just forward of the wings on ditching. Obviously crews were reluctant to fly it.
Superb video of the 1950's airlift systems MATS. It's kind of funny, did Lockheed steal the style of the C-133 A for the C-130 Hercules. They both look a little alike in the frontal fuselage.
Once the high wing low loading level was proven it was used on many different cargo planes.
First flight of the C-130 (1954) predates the first flight of the C-133 (1956) by 20 months.
The original C-130s had the "roman nose" which looked considerably different than the later one we are all familiar with. Only the first few batches of the C-130A had the old nose.
I read that the C-133's were taken out of service and sent to the boneyard in 1971. Surprisingly aviation writer Bill Gunston said in at least two of his books that they flew on with the USAF until the late Seventies. How he missed that one I don't know.
Yeah these were retired due to fatigue issues after so much service in SE Asia. Too many accidents!
C-124 actually outlived the C-133 in use with the ANG until 1975.
wkat950 : private operators used a few for air cargo to Alaska I believe...
@@hertzair1186 Yes, they used them to carry long pipeline sections that wouldn't fit in any other aircraft.
@@chuckhershiser9900 roger, thnx!
Always loved this MATS films, Thanks for sharing
Cargo aircraft are cooler than Fighters. There, I said it.
The C-124 outlasted the C-133
Worked on them at Dover AFB 67-70 Avionics Tech. We all dreaded to be assigned to one which just returned from a long flight (SEA, Europe) since it would usually have many carry forwarded avionics issues. Working on those high wings and engines was dangerous. Many a cold, wet, windy night was spent on them. Remember once a departing 133 had a stall warning error (high risk flight system) which I met on the run way. Checked it out don,t remember what I did. It appeared OK. Flight crew said fine your coming with us on the test/training runs which was circling Dover and doing touch and gos. Remember being a little nervous.😳😱. It turned out fine. 👌💯
🗽🇺🇸
I love these old films! !
I was stationed at Kelly AFB (1955-57) In the 1700th Test Squadron. We flight tested turboprop engines on conventional aircraft. (2 C-131's, 2 C-97's, 2 C-121's) . The engines were changed after every 10 hours of flight. Eventually rising to 100 hours. All the testing we did led to the development of the C-133. Twelve (10 Maintenance and 2 Flight Engineers) of us were picked to go to the Douglas Aircraft Co. in Long Beach, California, to attend classes on all the systems of the C-133. Then we were sent to Edwards to learn more. Our outfit was disbanded in late 1957 and we were sent to Dover. We had to work on C-124's until the C-133's came to the Base.
I remember watching these things lumber into Scott AFB (Scott 'Field') in the 60s early 70s at the latest, along with a few C-133s... mostly C-130s, and then C-141s. Of course, that's when the 124s and 133s went the way of the Dodo.
0:07 The Chris Award: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_International_Film_%26_Video_Festival
Absolutely awesome.
7:22 One of those dots is in either Jordan or Iraq.
6:37 It would take 15% of the fleet to recreate that shot today.
A rare film of a little-known MATS transport...it was one of a few, if not the only, aircraft of the time that could carry the first small medium range missiles, such as the Douglas Thor. I had a rare opportunity to go inside one briefly at the SAC museum when it was still at Offutt AFB, Omaha. Sadly it had a poor safety record early on, until they sorted out its problems. Then late in its career, airframe fatigue led to airframe failures in flight. I believe the last inflight airframe failure was in 1970 over southwest Nebraska, where the airframe crackedand failed.
Erik, I met a guy who's company stole 2 C-133's from the boneyard and took them to Alaska to haul pipe for the pipeline, true story!
The mechanic working for the company figured out why they were crashing. The planes vibration shook all the flight equipment off the walls of the plane. He secured it better and these planes flew till they developed stress cracks.
@@scuddrunner1 They didn't "steal" them, they were purchased. Getting them approved for air worthiness was a different issue. A number of those transferred to civilian hands never ended up flying again and sat around for two decades before being scrapped. The vibration was a huge issue with the -133 however, and it was never really corrected or resolved.
@@clownshow5901 : On the whole it would have to be considered a Douglas Aircraft Company failure. One of the very few that ever occurred with Douglas aircraft.
Only saw one of these, on the parking ramp at DM. They had either pulled it out of MASDC or were putting it in. It was impressive. At the time I thought it might be an early 141 but no, it was a different animal all together. I always wondered what happened to them. We flew on C130’s frequently enough but never on a 133.
Does anyone know what the C-124s competition was at the time of this film in the late 1950s?
I don't understand your question. (The C-124 went into service in 1950.)
The only thing i recall when i was in the USAF 1956-1960 They had no idea if the C-124 would be able to fly. Considering the short wings, available power from the engines, and of course the humongous SIZE of a C-124 I stood next to one while in Iceland.........it was "HUGE". A crew member popped his head out thru a hatch above the cockpit and we tried talking "regular" We had to raise our voices a bit, considering how far away we were from each other..........and there were NO noises near us at the time.
Im not and expert competition in the 50s none or a C- 133 C-130
C-124 and C-133 were both Douglas products. A -124 was the original test bed for the engines that went into the -133 (they also used a couple C-97s). This film shows a fast image of the proposed XC-132, which was a full jet version of the C-133, but it was never built. The C-141 and C-5 both supplanted it very quickly. The -133 was designed in the early 50s.
Jeremy Bear : maybe C-54’s...but the C-124 was the mainstay for MATS until the C-141 and the C-5 Galaxy appeared.
God how I would love to write and narrate these propaganda films. What fun. Even now for those that know what I am referring to, it's great fun to turn the sound off and make your own.
The DC-8 at 26:48 is flying over Santa Barbara California.
Looks like the precursor to the Herc.