The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

. Like the

Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained ...

derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian airliner, the

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960 ...

. Besides transport of cargo, the C-54 also carried presidents, prime ministers, and military staff. Dozens of variants of the C-54 were employed in a wide variety of non-combat roles such as

air-sea rescue Air-sea rescue (ASR or A/SR, also known as sea-air rescue), and aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (AMSAR) by the ICAO and IMO, is the coordinated search and rescue (SAR) of the survivors of emergency water landings as well as people ...

, scientific and military research, and missile tracking and recovery. During the

Berlin Airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...

it hauled coal and food supplies to

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

. After the Korean War it continued to be used for military and civilian uses by more than 30 countries. It was one of the first aircraft to carry the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

, the first being President Franklin D. Roosevelt during

Design and development

Douglas C-54 Skymaster in flight, circa in 1943

With the looming entry of the United States into World War II, in June 1941 the War Department took over the provision orders for the airlines for the

and allocated them to the United States Army Air Forces with the designation C-54 Skymaster. The first, a C-54, flew from

Clover Field Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica Municipal Airport) is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is about from the Pacific Ocean (Santa Monica Bay) and north of Los Angeles International Ai ...

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

on 14 February 1942. To meet military requirements the first civil production aircraft had four additional auxiliary fuel tanks in the main cabin which reduced the passenger seats to 26. The following batch of aircraft, designated C-54A, were built with a stronger floor and a cargo door with a hoist and winch. The first C-54A was delivered in February 1943. The C-54B, introduced in March 1944, had integral fuel tanks in the outer wings, allowing two of the cabin tanks to be removed. This change allowed 49 seats (or 16 stretchers) to be fitted. The , a hybrid for Presidential use, had a C-54A fuselage with four cabin fuel tanks and C-54B wings with built in tanks to achieve maximum range. The most common variant was the C-54D, which entered service in August 1944. Based on the C-54B, it was fitted with more powerful R-2000-11 engines. With the C-54E, the last two cabin fuel tanks were moved to the wings which would allow more freight or 44 passenger seats. Aircraft transferred to the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

were designated Douglas R5D. With the introduction of the

Tri-Service aircraft designation system The Tri-Service aircraft designation system is a unified system introduced in 1962 by the United States Department of Defense for designating all U.S. military aircraft. Previously, the U.S. armed services used separate nomenclature systems. ...

in 1962, all R5Ds were re-designated C-54.

Operational history

C-54s began service with the USAAF in 1942, carrying up to 26 passengers, later versions carrying up to 50 passengers. The C-54 was one of the most commonly used long-range transports by the U.S. armed forces in World War II. Of the C-54s produced, 515 were manufactured in

and 655 were manufactured at Orchard Place/Douglas Field, in unincorporated

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 2 ...

, near

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

(later the site of

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop busines ...

During

, the C-54 was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt,

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...

, and

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

. The American delegates to the

Casablanca Conference The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL) or Anfa Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, French Morocco, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. In attendance were ...

used the Skymaster. The C-54 was also used by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

, the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Ar ...

, and the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

of at least 12 other nations. President Harry S. Truman signed the

National Security Act of 1947 The National Security Act of 1947 ( Pub.L.br>80-253 61 Stat.br>495 enacted July 26, 1947) was a law enacting major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II. The majority of the pro ...

, which created the U.S. Air Force, on board ''Sacred Cow'', the Presidential VC-54C which is preserved at the

National Museum of the United States Air Force The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the ...

near

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County, Ohio, Greene County. The 2020 United S ...

. More than 300 C-54s and R5Ds formed the backbone of the US contribution to the

in 1948. They also served as the main airlift during the

. After the Korean War, the C-54 was replaced by the

Douglas C-124 Globemaster II The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, nicknamed "Old Shaky", is an American heavy-lift cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. The C-124 was the primary heavy-lift transport for United States Air Force (U ...

, but continued to be used by the U.S. Air Force until 1972. The last active C-54 Skymaster in U.S. Navy service (C-54Q, BuNo ''56501'', of the Navy Test Pilot School,

NAS Patuxent River Naval Air Station Patuxent River , also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States naval air station located in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River. It is home to Headquarters, Naval Air Sys ...

) was retired on 2 April 1974. In late 1945, several hundred C-54s were surplus to U.S. military requirements and these were converted for civil airline operation, many by Douglas Aircraft at its aircraft plants. The aircraft were sold to airlines around the world. By January 1946,

Pan American Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

was operating their Skymasters on transatlantic scheduled services to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and beyond. Trans-Pacific schedules from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

began on 6 June 1946. After disposal by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, many C-54s were modified for use in civilian firefighting and air tanker roles. This included fitting tanks inside and under the fuselage and the fitting of dumping and spraying equipment also on the wing trailing edges. C-54s continued in this role until the late 1990s.

Variants

;C-54 :First production variant adapted from DC-4, 24 built. ; :First military version with strengthened airframe, increased fuel capacity, provision for passengers or cargo, Navy equivalent R5D-1, 252 built. ;C-54B :Increased fuel capacity in the wing, One was used by Winston Churchill, 220 built. ; :Same as C-54B but with R-2000-11 engines, 380 built. ; :Further revision to fuel tanks and provision for rapid conversion from passenger to cargo, 125 built. ; :Same as C-54E but with different version of the R-2000 engine. 400 ordered, of which 162 were completed and the remainder were cancelled at the end of WW2.

Operators

Accidents and incidents

C-54 destroyed by North Korean fighters 1950

Crashing in the sea (1947)

On 3 July 1947: US Army Air Force C-54G ''45-519'' crashed in the Atlantic 294 mi off Florida after a loss of control caused by turbulence from a storm, killing the six crew.

Massachusetts crash (1948)

On 14 May 1948, an army transport plane flying through a rainstorm crashed in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an a ...

, killing the three crew members aboard.

Disappearance (1950)

On 26 January 1950, a C-54D operated by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

disappeared during a flight between Anchorage-Elmendorf Air Force Base (

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

) and

Great Falls Air Force Base Malmstrom Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place (CDP) in Cascade County, Montana, United States, adjacent to the city of Great Falls. It was named in honor of World War II POW Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom ...

(

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

) with a crew of eight and 36 passengers (34 service personnel and two civilians).Ranter, Harro and Fabian I. Lujan
'Douglas C-54D-1-DC 42-72469 Snag, YT"
Aviation Safety Net, 2008. Retrieved: 15 May 2012.Kennebec, Matt

''1000 Photos'', 2010. Retrieved: 15 May 2012. No trace of the aircraft or its occupants has ever been found.

Crashed (1950)

On 19 September 1950, a U.S. Navy C-54 en-route to Korea crashed into the sea approximately one minute after takeoff from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. The aircraft had 26 personnel aboard including eleven nurses. There were no survivors.

Crashing in the sea (1951)

On 31 January 1951, the C-54D with tail number 282 of the Portuguese Military Aeronautics, operated by the Search and Rescue Squadron of the

Lajes Air Base Lajes Field or Lajes Air Base (; pt, Base Aérea das Lajes), officially designated Air Base No. 4 (''Base Aérea Nº 4'', BA4) , is a multi-use airfield near Lajes and northeast of Angra do Heroísmo on Terceira Island in the Azores, Portu ...

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

, flying from the Lisbon Airport back to its base, crashed in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, when approaching Lajes. All of the 14 people on board (two pilots, nine mechanics and three other military personnel) were killed.

Berlin corridor attack (1952)

On 29 April 1952, an

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

Douglas C-54A (registration F-BELI) operating a scheduled service from Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport to

Berlin Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport (german: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, lea ...

came under sustained attack from two Soviet

MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (russian: Микоя́н и Гуре́вич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of ...

fighters Fighter(s) or The Fighter(s) may refer to: Combat and warfare * Combatant, an individual legally entitled to engage in hostilities during an international armed conflict * Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplan ...

while passing through one of the Allied air corridors over

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

. Although the attack had severely damaged the aircraft, necessitating the shutdown of engines number three and four, the pilot in command of the aircraft managed to carry out a safe

emergency landing An emergency landing is a premature landing made by an aircraft in response to an emergency involving an imminent or ongoing threat to the safety and operation of the aircraft, or involving a sudden need for a passenger or crew on board to term ...

at Tempelhof Airport. A subsequent inspection of the aircraft's damage revealed that it had been hit by 89 shots fired from the Soviet MiGs. There were no fatalities among the 17 occupants (six crew, 11 passengers) despite the severity of the attack. The Soviet military authorities defended this attack on an unarmed civilian aircraft by claiming the Air France plane was outside the air corridor at the time of attack.

Shoot-down by the PRC (1954)

On 23 July 1954, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster civilian airliner, registration VR-HEU, operated by

Cathay Pacific Airways Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have ...

, en route from

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

, was shot down by Chinese

PLAAF The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the P ...

Lavochkin La-11 The Lavochkin La-11 (NATO reporting name Fang) was an early post-World War II Soviet long-range piston-engined fighter aircraft. The design was essentially that of a Lavochkin La-9 with additional fuel tanks and the deletion of one of the four ...

fighters off the coast of

Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slight ...

, killing ten people."Accident details – VR-HEU."
''Plane Crash Info''. Retrieved: 15 May 2012.
''Major Commercial Airline Disasters.'' Retrieved: 15 May 2012.
''The Life & Times of James Harper.'' Retrieved: 15 May 2012.

Explosion in North Africa (1955)

On 11 December 1955, the C-54 of the United States Air Force's

1700th Air Transport Group The 1700th Air Transport Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the Continental Division, Military Air Transport Service, stationed at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas. It was inactivated on 1 May 1957. History ...

, based at

Kelly Field Kelly Field (formerly Kelly Air Force Base) is a Joint-Use facility located in San Antonio, Texas. It was originally named after George E. M. Kelly, the first member of the U.S. military killed in the crash of an airplane he was piloting. In ...

, San Antonio, Tex. The transport crashed in the Gomor district near the border, between French and Spanish Morocco. Flying from Wheelus Field in Tripoli to

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

, it was believed en route to the United States. Eight United States airmen died when their plane exploded in the rugged Riff Mountains of

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. One of the eight Airmen was identified as Staff Sergeant George R. Haug, 26, of Butler, PA, R. D. 7, a flight mechanic. Published in the

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Alle ...

on Wednesday, December 14, 1955, page 26.

Disappearance (1964)

On 28 March 1964, a C-54A disappeared over the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

(about 1120 km west of

—last reported position: ) on an executive passenger flight from

Honolulu International Airport Daniel K. Inouye International Airport , also known as Honolulu International Airport, is the main airport of Oahu, Hawaii.Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The pilot reported a fire in No. 2 engine, which might make it necessary to ditch. Nothing more was heard from the aircraft, nor was any trace of it found despite an extensive search. Three crew and six passengers died in the accident.Ranter, Harro and Fabian I. Lujan
"ASN Aircraft accident Douglas C-54A-10-DC N4726V San Francisco, CA."
''Aviation Safety Network'', 2011. Retrieved: 15 May 2012.

Specifications (C-54G-DO)

Douglas R5D-2 Skymaster 3-view line drawing

Notable appearances in media

A C-54, registration C-FIQM ( Buffalo 5-721 (tail 57)), was used as a substitute

Lancaster bomber The Avro Lancaster is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the S ...

due to its similar top speed and maximum payload, for a recreation of

Operation Chastise Operation Chastise or commonly known as the Dambusters Raid was an attack on Nazi Germany, German dams carried out on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by No. 617 Squadron RAF, 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, later called the Dam Busters, using sp ...

with its

bouncing bomb A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-deter ...

. It was filmed in the UK documentary ''Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb'', Canadian documentary ''Dambusters Fly Again'', ''

Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramat ...

'' season 39 episode "

Bombing Hitler's Dams "Bombing Hitler's Dams" is an episode on ''NOVA'' in which Hugh Hunt enlists the help of Buffalo Airways and others in an attempt to recreate the bouncing bomb used in World War II's Operation Chastise. Design and testing Hunt's goal was to crea ...

", and ''

Ice Pilots NWT ''Ice Pilots NWT'' (known in the UK and the US as ''Ice Pilots''''Ice Pilots''
at Quest TV) is ...

'' season 3 episode 2 "Dambusters"."Dambusters Fly Again."
''History Television'', August 2011. Retrieved: 15 May 2012.Chivers, Tom

''The Telegraph'' (London), 2 May 2011. Retrieved: 15 May 2012.Bryan, Hal
"'Ice Pilots' Help Re-Create 'Dambusters'"
. EAA, 5 May 2011. Retrieved: 15 May 2012."Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb."
''Channel 4'', 2011. Retrieved: 15 May 2012.
PBS, WGBH, ''Nova''. Retrieved: 12 January 2012."Ice Pilots NWT: Season 3, Episode 2: Dambusters."
''History Television.'' Retrieved: 15 May 2012. The 1950 drama, "The Big Lift" features C-54s flying the Berlin Airlift.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Berry, Peter et al. ''The Douglas DC-4.'' Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1967. * Blewett, R. ''Survivors.'' Coulsden, UK: Aviation Classics, 2007. . * Eastwood, Tony and John Roach. ''Piston Engine Airliner Production List''. West Drayton, UK: Aviation Hobby Shop, 1991. . * Francillon, René. ''McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920: Volume I.'' London: Putnam, 1979. . * Lavery, Brian: ''Churchill Goes to War: Winston's Wartime Journeys.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2007. . * Milberry, Larry. ''The Canadair North Star''. Toronto: CANAV Books, 1982. . * Pearcy, Arthur. ''Douglas Propliners: DC-1–DC-7.'' Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1995. . * Pickler, Ron and Larry Milberry. ''Canadair: The First 50 Years''. Toronto: CANAV Books, 1995. . * Yenne, Bill. ''McDonnell Douglas: A Tale of Two Giants.''Greenwich, Connecticut: Bison Books, 1985. .

External links

AN 01-40NU-1 Handbook Flight Operating Instructions USAF Series C-54G and Navy Model R5D-5 AircraftCanadair DC4M North StarMoose Jaw crash at virtualmuseum.caPSA History/Oldtimers PageBerlin Airlift Historical Foundation
��Operates C-54 "Spirit of Freedom" as flying Berlin Airlift Museum
Air Force Association page on C-54Cockpit View of C-54 During Landing/TaxiBoeing McDonnell Douglas page on DC-4Vintage Wings of Canada Canadair North Star showing RR Merlin installation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas Dc-4 DC-04 Four-engined tractor aircraft 1940s United States airliners Douglas C-054 Skymaster

Douglas C-54 Skymaster The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian a ...

C-54 Aircraft first flown in 1942 Four-engined piston aircraft