C-119G “Flying Boxcar”

The C-119 design began in 1941 as the XC-82 Packet. It was first flown on November 17, 1947, at Fairchild Aviation Company’s Hagerstown, Maryland, plant. The XC-82 was the first American aircraft designed during World War II specifically for a fast, mobile, cargo-carrying function. It entered production as the C-82A, a twin-boomed transport powered by two Pratt and Whitney R-2800-85 air-cooled engines rated at 2,100 horsepower each. The C-82 was used in the Berlin Airlift in 1948 but was not as well publicized as the more numerous C-47s or C-54s. In 1947, the 137th production model C-82A was extensively modified into the XC-82B. This plane had a relocated crew compartment for improved vision, a wider fuselage, strengthened wings and larger engines. Because this aircraft was more than a new version of the C-82A, the Air Force redesignated the plane as the C-119 and nicknamed it “The Flying Boxcar”. When production of the C-119s ended in 1955, 1,151 planes had been built, half of which were still in service in 1969.  

The Museum’s C-119 was manufactured by Fairchild Aircraft in Hagerstown, Maryland, and delivered to the USAF on January 5, 1953.