Name that airplane

Ken Ibold

Ken Ibold

Final Approach
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Feb 21, 2005
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Display name:
Ken Ibold
In my new line of work, we end up at a wide variety of airports. A colleague ran into one I've never seen before.
 

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I agree. To see a Boxcar in action, see the original 1966 version of the movie "The Flight Of The Phoenix".
 
C-119 Flying Boxcar and with the lighting bolt across it meant it was the comm in the squadron. Where is it at, my partners husband was a mechanic for the C-119 in Korea.

C-119 Flying Boxcar
 
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Yes, it's one of Hawkins and Powers' (now defunct) old fire bombers.

C-119-137.jpg





http://www.ruudleeuw.com/bmtn.htm

Before they closed their doors they brought one to Airventure in the early 2000's.

vontresc said:
Looks like a C-119 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-119_Flying_Boxcar

So what's your new line of work?
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Somewhat similar design was the Nord Aviation Noratlas, about the same vintage:

1066152.jpg
 
Steve said:
Yes, it's one of Hawkins and Powers' (now defunct) old fire bombers.
Before they closed their doors they brought one to Airventure in the early 2000's.
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I was going to say that it sure looked like the fire bombers I used to work around when I was fighting fires as a younger guy... The one in the OP pic has a JATO (Jet assisted take off) engine mounted on top. They were very impressive to see them dropping their loads, close up!

Unfortunately, we lost a C-119 when it crashed on the mtn we were fighting a fire on in Central Colo... we also lost 2 B-25's on that same fire.

It was a bad fire which also killed several firefighters.
 
In 1960 while going through jump school at Ft. Campbell Kentucky, we jumped C-119s and C-123s. The 19 was a nice plane to jump because there was not much a turn to make going out the door.

There was an old story floating around at the time where the designer of the C-119 was told it would never fly. He retorted with, "If you give me enough horse power, I'll fly a F***ing barn."

On one jump after jump school in one of those, the pilot gave us our pre-flight safety briefing, he obviously hated C-119s. He said when we are going to go down and crash, you'll get a steady bell alarm and a green light, get out. It wasn't "if", it was "when."

The C-119 and the C-130 were our favorite planes to jump in those days, both easy to get out of.

After one large training exercise down in the Carolinas, all of our gear was loaded onto a C-119 for a flight back to Ft. Campbell. I was a young buck Sgt at the time, and they had me fly back with the equipment to insure it actually got there.

It was a night flight and the crew allowed me on the flight deck with them. They asked if I wanted to try flying it for a while. Naturally, I thought that would be a great idea. They put me in the right seat, and showed me how to hold the course. They let me "fly" the airplane for probably fifteen or twenty minutes. I was all proud of myself. I exercised my bragging rights for at least the next few weeks.

Looking back on that, I have a hunch they had it on auto pilot, something I knew nothing about at the time, and were having a joke at my expense. Anyway, they let me believe I flew it.

John
 
John Baker said:
In 1960 while going through jump school at Ft. Campbell Kentucky, we jumped C-119s and C-123s. The 19 was a nice plane to jump because there was not much a turn to make going out the door.

There was an old story floating around at the time where the designer of the C-119 was told it would never fly. He retorted with, "If you give me enough horse power, I'll fly a F***ing barn."

On one jump after jump school in one of those, the pilot gave us our pre-flight safety briefing, he obviously hated C-119s. He said when we are going to go down and crash, you'll get a steady bell alarm and a green light, get out. It wasn't "if", it was "when."

The C-119 and the C-130 were our favorite planes to jump in those days, both easy to get out of.

After one large training exercise down in the Carolinas, all of our gear was loaded onto a C-119 for a flight back to Ft. Campbell. I was a young buck Sgt at the time, and they had me fly back with the equipment to insure it actually got there.

It was a night flight and the crew allowed me on the flight deck with them. They asked if I wanted to try flying it for a while. Naturally, I thought that would be a great idea. They put me in the right seat, and showed me how to hold the course. They let me "fly" the airplane for probably fifteen or twenty minutes. I was all proud of myself. I exercised my bragging rights for at least the next few weeks.

Looking back on that, I have a hunch they had it on auto pilot, something I knew nothing about at the time, and were having a joke at my expense. Anyway, they let me believe I flew it.

John
Click to expand...

Probably just had it trimmed out..

My dad did the same thing with me with Beech 18's back in Hawaii in the 70's. I ended up with a few hours but couldnt reach the rudder pedals.. but I sure held altitude well..
 
Doggtyred said:
Probably just had it trimmed out..

My dad did the same thing with me with Beech 18's back in Hawaii in the 70's. I ended up with a few hours but couldnt reach the rudder pedals.. but I sure held altitude well..
Click to expand...

Then there was my Dad's story about his ride in an R4D during WW II. He was a Navy Corpsman and had escorted some patients to a hospital. On the way back it was the crew up front and two medics in the back. The co-pilot came back to see hwo things were for them and found out that this was Dad's first trip in an airplane. So he was invited to come up to the cockpit. They put him in the right seat, showed him the altimeter and said to follow the lights up the San Juaquin valley. So he did. Up, down, left, right, finally got settled in on course, but the altitude was wrong. More gyrations getting that fixed. The pilot and co-pilot were laughing so hard they could hardly give him advice. Finally the pilot took the controls, leveled off at the desired altitude and took his hands off the controls. "See, the plane will fly itself!". When Dad when back to his seat in the back his partner commented about the rough weather they'd just flown through. He didn't tell him what had actually happened. :D
 
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