Story and photos by Scott Jankowski
Another one of the many highlights of AirVenture 2026 was a visit by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation’s C-54D Skymaster N500EJ. This C-54D serial number 22178 was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft down in Chicago Illinois in 1945 and delivered to the United States Army Air Force on September 6th, 1945. This four-engine transport was built as a successor to the iconic Douglas C-47 Skytrain first assigned to the 1103rd Base Unit, Air Transport Command at Morrison Army Airfield Florida. In May of 1946 the aircraft was transferred to the 1377th Base Unit, Air Transport Command at Westover Army Airfield Massachusetts. Come October of 1948 saw the aircraft transferred again to the 61st Troop Carrier (Heavy) Group, Military Air Transport Command located at Rhein Main Air Base Germany and would participate in the Berlin Airlift for the next 6 months. In 1949 the aircraft would return to the United States for a major inspection and overhaul at the Douglas factory at Burbank California. Afterwards the aircraft was reassigned to the 513th Troop Carrier (Heavy) Group Military Air Transport Service Rhein Main Airbase Germany. In July of 1949 the aircraft would rejoin the Berlin Airlift when it flew out of Celle Airbase Germany and assigned to the 317th Troop Carrier (Heavy) Group and for the next 3 months the aircraft would split time between these 2 units.
With the defeat of Germany to end World War II in Europe, the allied powers signed the Potsdam Agreement which saw Postwar Germany divided into 4 temporary occupation zones controlled by the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin was divided into 4 zones despite being deep in the sector controlled by the Soviet Union. The United States, United Kingdom and France would control western portions of the city and the Soviet Union the eastern portion of the city. On November 30th, 1945, an agreement was made regarding transportation to Berlin from the West, this agreement established only 3, 20-mile-wide corridors between Berlin and the cities of Hamburg, Buckenburg and Frankfurt. Tensions would grow steadily between the 4 countries from 1945 to 1947. In the summer of 1947, there was growing concern about the Soviet Leader Stalin’s influence in spreading Communism to other European Countries. Relations further deteriorated and on June 24th, 1948, Stalin ordered Soviet Troops to block all rail and barge traffic in and out of Berlin.
The West had no choice but to order a similar blockade of Berlin with the hopes of having the same damaging consequences on the Soviet side of Berlin. On June 25th, 1948, the order was given to launch “Operation Vittles”. The next day saw 32 Douglas DC-3 Skytrains hauled 80 tons of assorted cargo into Berlin. The British would join the airlift using the codename of “Operation Plainfare” on June 25th, 1948. The larger 4 engine Douglas C-54 Skymaster would join the smaller 2 engine C-47 Skytrain would join the operation and necessitated a change a change in how the airlift would operate. A system was devised called the “block system” which was needed to coordinate the arrivals of various aircraft into congested airspace. The system was set up in 3 8-hour shifts of C-54 arrivals followed by a section of C-47 arrivals. Aircraft were scheduled to depart every 4 minutes and flown 1,000 feet higher than the flight in front of them. This pattern began at 5,000 feet and was repeated 5 times and was latter dubbed “the ladder”.
On July 20th, 1948, the United States Air Force had 105 C-47’s and C-54’s assigned to the airlift, the Royal Air Force added another 40 Avro York’s and 50 C-47’s. The United States Air Force MATS (Military Air Transport Service) added another 35 Douglas C-54’s and by July 30th, 1948, it would jump to 72 aircraft. New procedures would go into effect after a series of incidents involving 3 aircraft occurring on the same day. These new procedures included IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) in effect at all times regardless of the weather conditions. Another was every flight had one chance to land, if they went missed approach for any reason they would return to origin. The practice of “stacking” was also eliminated switching to straight in approaches. It was determined that you could land 30 aircraft in the time it took to unstack 9 aircraft. Due to the difficult nature of unloading the C-47 as it has a sloping cargo deck, it took the same amount of time to unload a C-54 as it did a C-47, as a result the C-47’s were phased out.
The next change was with turnaround times which were shortened to 30 minutes with the “ladder” altered to 3 minutes, 500 feet of separation, starting at 4,000 feet. Maintenance schedules were strictly adhered to allow a goal of 1,440 landings a day in Berlin. By the end of August 1948, daily operations stood at 1,500 flights a day with 4,500 tons of cargo delivered. Phase 2 of the air lift ran from October 1948 to March 1949 and saw the daily supply requirement increase from 4,500 tons a day to 5,620 tons. It included 1,435 tons for food, 3,084 tons of coal, 255 tons for commerce/industry, 35 tons of newspapers, 16 tons of liquid fuel, 2 tons of medical supplies, 763 tons for the United States, British and French Military, and 30 tons for C-54 passenger flights. Once Winter hit and with coal being the primary heating source for the city that daily amount would need to be adjusted to an additional 6,000 tons a day. In order to accommodate the additional flights and volume runways needed to be extended and improved. By April 1949 the United States Air Force reported delivering 2,235,669.6 tons of cargo to Berlin, 76% by the United States Air Force, 17% by the Royal Air Force and 7% by British civilian aircraft. The airlift would deliver a total of 234,476 tons of cargo this month alone. The daily tonnage would increase again from 6,729 tons to 8,893 tons. Then on April 25th the Soviet News Agency TASS announced the blockade would end on May 12th, 1949.
A particularly important part of the airlift was used to maintain morale was known as “Operation Little Vittles”. This operation was started by airlift pilots, who saw them dropping candy by mini parachutes to the children watching the aircraft from the end of the runway land. By the time the airlift ended some 3 tons of candy was dropped, by what the German children nicknamed these aircraft the “Raisin or Candy Bomber.” On May 4th, 1949, the allies announced that the blockade would end in 8 days. The blockade was officially lifted one minute after midnight on May 12th. The airlift itself would officially end on September 30th, 1949, after 15 long months. In the end of the airlift the United States Air Force delivered 1,783,573 tons of cargo, and the British 541,937 tons, nearly 2/3 of that being coal on a total of 278,228 flights. At the height of the airlift an allied aircraft was landing in Berlin every 30 seconds. These aircrews came from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The total cost for this operation was roughly $224-$500 million dollars, which is roughly $2.33-$5.21 billion dollars today.
The Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation was formed in 1988 and is based out of New Jersey. The foundation obtained and restored its original C-54E, serial number 44-9144 on December 22. 1992 and would turn the aircraft into a flying museum containing artifacts, displays, and information pertaining to the Berlin Airlift. In order to tell the remarkable story of the Berlin Airlift the foundation’s purpose is to educate, remember, and celebrate this pivotal point in world history. The foundation wanted to tell this incredible story by taking it to the people in an actual aircraft that participated in the airlift. Bringing this history to the people, getting the word out, and continuing to educate as many people as possible about the event that started the Cold War The foundations original aircraft which first carried the registration of N500EJ, was severely damaged by a tornado in 2020 and was deemed uneconomical to repair after it was slammed into a hanger.
The foundation would begin searching for a replacement aircraft right away and located serial number 43-17228. We pickup the history of this aircraft when it returned to the United States after the airlift ended in July 1949 and was assigned to the 62nd Troop Carrier (Heavy) Squadron at McChord Air Force Base Washington. From September 1949 to August 1965 the aircraft would see service with units around the world serving at a variety of bases in Japan, Libya, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, Washington, Texas, Missouri, Montana, and Colorado. The aircraft would be retired and sent to the Davis Monthan Air Force Base Arizona and would only be retired for a brief period when the aircraft was returned to service in July 1967. The United States Army returned this aircraft to service and based it out the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands. The United States Army would operate this aircraft until January 1978 when it was again retired back to the Davis Monthan Air Force Base Boneyard. This stay at Davis Monthan would be brief as well as the aircraft would be acquired on December 28th, 1978, by EMI Service before it was sold to Ardco INC. in April 1982. The aircraft would be converted to an aerial firefighting tanker aircraft and reregistered N9015Q,
On October 28th, 2008, the Benbrook Texas based Air Elite Corporation would take ownership of the aircraft before transferring it to the Opa Locka Florida based Florida Air Transport on October 19th, 2011. Jet One Express would take possession of the aircraft on October 12th, 2012, with the last operator, before the foundation would take ownership of the aircraft being the Middletown Delaware based Air Transport LLC. On August 20th, 2020, the purchase agreement was signed with the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation taking delivery of the aircraft on January 12th, 2021. The aircraft would be flown to Floyd Bennett Field New York New York and would be registered as N500EJ on August 31st, 2021. The interior of this aircraft was also converted into the same walk-through exhibit space featuring historical artifacts, photographs, displays, informative panels, documents, and equipment explaining the story behind the supply of food, coal, and essential goods to West Berlin during the blockade. The aircraft also contains exhibits that tell the story behind “The Candy Bomber” also highlighted is a story about of a dog that flew 130 resupply missions. Other displays highlight what goes into maintaining and flying this classic 4 engine transport.
A total of 1,120 C-54’s were built during its production run from 1942 to 1947 and first flew on February 14th, 1942. The C-54 was derived from the civilian Douglas DC-4 and was used extensively during World War II, the Berlin Airlift, and the Korean War. The C-54 is powered by 4 Pratt&Whitney R-2000-9 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder air cooled piston engines, each generating up to 1,450 horsepower, giving the aircraft a top speed of 275 miles and range of 4,000 miles. The C-54 has a crew of 4 and could carry 50 troops or 32,500#’s of cargo. The C-54 was used by all branches of the United States Military as well as several foreign air force’s including the countries of France, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The C-54 would see life beyond its military service as a cargo hauler in Alaska and as an Air Tanker to fight wildland fires.
This beautifully restored aircraft participates in approximately 30 shows a year which puts roughly 120 hours of time a year on the airframe which only has roughly 27,600 hours total on the airframe. The Foundation’s mission is “Getting the word out” (about the Berlin Airlift) and is aggressive about presenting an educational aspect to the Airlift to the public around the world. If this rare aircraft ever makes a visit to an airport near you take the time to tour this historic aircraft, you will not regret it. Until next time, “Blue Skies To All!”
*** Please note that some of the photos in this article are file photos or postcards***
