From: Jean Schoefs
Subject: Photographic History & Tribute to all Vintage Propeller aircraft
Truly a piece of aviation history.- This may very well be the best documented website on the net of all Vintage Propeller aircraft – lots of photographs, all well documented with history and final resting places. Most pictures can be enlarged with a click.
Enjoy,
Jean
Photos #1-4 by Eddy Vanhaute
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Dr. Péter Moys sent in this fine study of DC-6B OO-SDQ; he wrote:
"This is the last scheduled Douglas DC-6 of SABENA, at Budapest, leaving for BRU. The Caravelle came next time on! - I took this photo in 1963 or 1964."
OO-SQD c/n 44695/582 went on to Jean-Claude Bergey (TR-LOX, dba Apollo, operated in Biafra) and onto Gabonair as TR-LQE, Trans Gabon, Air Gabon and the trail went cold after that (probably scrapped by now or a wreck somewhere in the jungle, overgrown).
It shows to full advantage SABENA's good old DC-7C OO-SFC (c/n 45159) in the early days (1956). Service period was 1956 - 1970, according to the fleet list. - C/n 45159 was broken up recently after years of storage at Las Palmas as EC-BSQ
Photo by Eddy Vanhaute
Aaahhh.... those were the days!"
Photo /Fernand van de Plas
a unique image of Belgian Air Force C-119s (CP25 en CP30) in heavy maintenance with SABENA...
In the background one can also see the conversion of 'swingtail configuration' on the Spantax DC-6B, EC-BBK.
There is even a glimpse of a Braniff International Boeing 720! Yes indeed, Braniff's 720s rotated through Brussels for a (Boeing) update.
SABENA performed for many years contract work for Douglas and Boeing.
Ian MacFarlane sent in these Belgian Air Force C-119 photos and he remembers them well. His memory was triggered due to an exchange on Classic-Propliner Yahoo forum on C-119 names; he wrote:
" I remember the Belgian Air Force used to call their C-119's Packets or Charlie One Nineteen.
We used to see them regularly at Newcastle and previously RAF Ouston on their trooping flights for "Operation Over Tyne" (which it is still called today) at the Otterburn Ranges in Northumberland, England.
In the latter days of its service we used to provide a handling service (Ground Power usually) at Newcastle to the BAF and they referred to them as Packets or Charlie One Nineteen and certainly used the latter on the R/T to I/D their type when on initial call. Also telex messages never mentioned anything other than Packet or C-119 - Boxcar was never ever used, it was the same in Diplomatic Clearances to ATC. If we had crews from both the C-119 and DC-6A in the office at the same time and you asked who is flying what - it was always the Packet or Charlie One Nineteen.
"CP-31 - was at RAF Ouston (still used by the Army!) which is located about 5 miles north west of Newcastle Airport, it was hard to get good sharp photographs of taxying aircraft due to my camera having a manual focus and the fastest shutter speed being 1/300 - the C-119's used to taxi past at quite a speed as it was some distance to the main runway."
C-119G OT-CBJ / CP-30 (10998), NCL 01Aug 69.
Forty-six C-119s were delivered to the Belgian Air Force from 1952 onwards, initially C-119F's (1951 serials), and later C-119G's. - Eight of the C-119F's were passed to the Norwegian Air Force during June-Sep. 1956 and the remaining ten were converted to 'G' standard in 1959, with some re-serialling.
The C-119G's CP-19 to CP-40 were delivered between 10Aug53 and 20Mar54 with CP-41 to CP-46 following ex-USAF in Feb58. All aircraft served with 15 Wing only, amassing some 154,157 flying hours until retired during 1972-73. Most went into storage at Koksijde, but CP-29 and CP-37 were believed to be sold to Ethiopia and CP-46 went to the Brussels Museum.
(Source: Belgian Military Aviation 1945 - 1977, by Paul A.Jackson; Midland Counties Publications, 1977)
" The official name of the C-82 was "Packet." The first few C-82s were built by North American and they designed it, but Fairchild took over the contract and tooled up to built 200-plus C-82As. The C-82 had its shortcomings, so a 'redesign' was done, and the result was the XC-82B, still called a Packet.
The new design was such a great and radical departure from the C-82 that the Air Force gave it a new designation: C-119A. The XC-82B and the C-119A were the same, one-off airplane, tail number 45-7769, pulled from the C-82 line and re-worked.
It gets counted as two different airplanes, but it was the same one.
When a contract was let to build 55 of the new C-119s in 1946, they were designated C-119B. Fairchild insisted it was just a redesigned C-82 Packet and they never changed the name. The official name of the C-119 was also "Packet," same as the C-82. Both the C-82 and the C-119, all the way to the last C-119G off the assembly line, 53-7884, were officially named Packet.
C-119Js got a beaver-tail with an open-in-flight cargo door, C-119Ks got small jets under the wings, and C-119Ls got 3-bladed props--all still called Packet, including the C models and F models.
There were no D or E model other than design submissions. All C-119s were eventually modified to G models. There was a one-off C-119H, a C model pulled off the assembly line and extensively modified to compete for the contract ultimately won by Lockheed with the C-130.
A derivitive of the name was given to the XC-120, a re-worked C-82 that had removable pods, and was also a one-off. There were a total of 1,112 C-119s built from 1947 to 1953. In the late '60s, 52 C-119 Packets were pulled out of mothballs and sent to St. Augustine and modified to AC-119G 'Shadow' and AC-119K 'Stinger' gun ships, but those were only nicknames, as was the term "Flying Boxcar," which was applied to both the C-82 and C-119 because their cargo compartments were just about the same size as a railroad boxcar...
All Flying Boxcars, Dollar-Nineteens, Charlie one one niners, Shadows Stingers, etc., manufactured by North American, Fairchild and Kaiser-Fraser.... were Packets."
