N199AB/61999 to Travis AFB

Mark Meltzer did an excellent photo series with extensive remarks, from the Travis arrival on 30 Aug 2008. Check it out.

Preparations at Anchorage, 23 Aug 08

These photos by Terry Juran show preparations at Ted Stevens International Airport for the flight to McChord AFB and then on to Travis AFB.

All photos copyright Terry Juran 2008

Preparing to tow to maintenance area Hooking tug to 61999 for tow to maintenance area 61999 hooked to tug and ready for tow

61999 in maintenance area, waiting engine run Checking fluids in spinner New AF standard type markings on nose of 61999

The brochure below was developed to be used for the Labor Day arrival of the Alaska C-133A, N199AB/61999, at Travis AFB. It can also be used in times to follow to explain some of the history of this particular airplane and of the C-133 fleet in general.

100 Photos of C-133B 90536

Michael Boyd has done a photo walk-around of the C-133 at the Air Mobility Command Museum. They will be of great help to anyone building Gene hooker's model. Check them out here. Click on C-133.

CARGOMASTER

1/72 Scale Douglas C-133

Contact Gene Hooker for production information. His email is sherwoodchatfield@yahoo.com.

Kit includes:

24” x 36” styrene plastic vacuform sheet

59 parts, mostly male molded with parting lines

Female molded parts include:

Engine nacelles

Wing flap fairings

Radome

Nose wheels

Main gear pods are molded as part of the fuselage

Full-size plans show surface detail, panel lines, location of internal model structure, cockpit and landing gear detail.

Spruce yardstick used to build wing and tail surface spars.

Illustrated instructions with:

Detailed installation of balsa keels, bulkheads, ribs to stabilize the profile and contours of the model before parts are removed from the plastic sheet. (Plastic tube glue makes a good balsa/styrene bond).

Cockpit windshield made of clear acetate imprinted with window frame lines.

Display stand pattern.

Kit reissue ordering:

Gene Hooker can be contacted at sherwoodchatfield@yahoo.com.

Send check or money order to:

Gene Hooker

1810 Lafayette, Apt A 11

Columbus, OH 43212

Prices are: $70 postpaid to US. $100 airmail to non-US or Canada destinations.

Target shipment date: Contact Gene Hooker for production schedule before ordering.

C-133A 62014 built from the Hooker kit

Wingspan 30" Length 26"

C-133 Gallery (also some C-132 shots)

Most of these pictures were taken between 1969 and 1971, on various C-133 missions I flew in the Pacific and to other locations. A few come from 1963-64, taken at James Connally AFB, Texas and at Mather AFB, CA. At that time, I had no idea I would one day be flying these big airplanes. Former crewmembers and those interested in the C-133 have sent others to me. Credits are shown for those.

First sight of the C-133 was in 1964 at James Connally AFB, TX. Lots of MATS transports were moving the 3rd Armored Division from Ft. Hood, Texas in Operation EAGLE THRUST.

While I was at Mather AFB, CA, a C-133 (90522) landed there and blew a tire. I took a look through the plane on the ramp. While I was taking pictures from the top hatch, fuel started gushing out of the right wing dump mast. When I told the flight engineer (who had a student) he said, “Shut it off!” Must have flipped the switch for real instead of simulating.

I got into the airplane in May 1969, and found it to be huge. The C-130 was roomy, but the C-133 had even more. Here are some interior shots of my own and from others to give an idea of what things looked like.

CPT Andy Dill, 1961 Becky Cordell 2000 Nav station in use Cal Taylor 2000

Roger Cole at the engineer panel

Loading Tanks, Saigon 66 Bob Jones 2000 Cargo deck looking fwd Cal Taylor 2000

Operation LONG PASS, 1961

In early 1961, MATS conducted Operation LONG PASS. The command used its entire fleet of C-133s in a mass airlift between Incirlik AB, Turkey and Clark AB, PI. SMS Paul Barnes was a command post senior NCO TDY to Clark AB to augment the staff for the exercies. He took several pictures of the C-133 lineup, including a great shot of ten C-133s on the east parking ramp at Clark, with Mt. Ararat in the background. A Douglas tech rep told him this was the first time the entire C-133 fleet was in one place at once. If anyone has more details about LONG PASS, please contact me.

The Royal Air Force Cargomaster

The RAF Cargomaster

Walter Civitico, of Sydney, Australia, found this 1/72 scale cast metal C-133 model in an antique shop near Perth, Western Australia. It appears to have been painted from the start in standard RAF Transport Command markings, except that the serial number is one that was assigned to a Blackburn Beverly transport. Given that there is absolutely no information known of RAF interest in the C-133 or Douglas efforts to sell the airplane abroad, it is a mystery. Anyone with information about the model is urged to contact this website.

More recently, I had an e-mail from John Voss, who worked at Douglas during the summer of 1959. He was then an engineering student at Cal State University Long Beach. He did a variety of things in that time, with his primary work to run wire bundles in the C-133B fuselage. Because he was non-union, he was also tasked for miscellaneous details. Among them were to sweep out the inside of C-133s before a Royal Air Force procurement team visited. Because the RAF was buying the Thor IRBM at this time, they may have been primarily interested in the missile and only visited the C-133 to see how the Thor would be transported to England. There is still (Nov 2004) no information to suggest RAF interest in buying the C-133. In response to a recent query to the RAF Historical Office, the answer was that they could find no information at all indicating RAF interest in the C-133.

Concept for Saturn S-IVB Carrier (Douglas Photo)

When NASA was looking for a way to move rocket motors to the Cape, they asked Douglas for some ideas of how the C-133 could be used. Douglas presented several ideas, including this one with a huge capsule atop the C-133. Saturn motors and several other kinds of missile equipment could be carried inside the (somewhat) aerodynamic container. Ultimately, though, the decision was to install aft petal doors so the opening was large enough to insert the Atlas, Titan and Minuteman missiles.

“Nuclear C-133”

Bill Norton, at Edwards, sent me the first information about a proposed C-133 modification that I believe no one in the crew force ever heard about. The illustration is from David Carpenter’s NX-2 Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion, pg. 31, published as credited above. General Electric developed a HUGE jet engine, the X211 (military J-87), to be used in the 450,000-pound Convair NX-2 bomber. The engine would have been a twin-turbine unit with a nuclear reactor and heat exchanger between the engines to heat the air entering the turbine section. Each side of the engine would develop 27,730 pounds of thrust. The paired unit was 42’ long, and weighed 15,745 pounds.

The C-133 test bed would operate only the right engine of the pair, with an air intake aft of the crew entrance door. The test parameters included speed to Mach 0.62 and altitude to 35,000’. The first year was planned for 75 total flight hours, and 100 hours in subsequent years. It would have been an interesting operation, to say the least.

Some C-132 shots

The C-132 was never built, but it would have been an extremely impressive airplane. This year, I acquired a 1/100 cast metal model.

With the magic of the digital camera, I have put together some shots that give a good idea of what it would have looked like in

flight.

Alaska C-133 Flies

On 17 June 2004, Stu Sibitzky shot some photos of N199AB operating in Alaska. One of the destinations was a short, narrow (5,000' by 60') field at Chalyitsik. east of Fairbanks. It is not something that the military pilots would have considered adequate.