Thanks to Jeffrey P Rhodes for compiling this data

 
History of the B-25  Mitchell

On January 25, 1939, the Army Air Corps announced a competition for a medium bomber design, but instead of waiting for the prototypes, the Army awarded production contracts to North American for the B-25 and Martin for the B-26. Named in honor of US airpower proponent Brig. Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell, the B-25 served in every theater of World War II and was made in larger quantities than any other American twin-engine combat airplane.

The 17th Bomb Group at McChord Field, Wash., was the first unit to receive B-25s in 1941.On April 18, 1942, Lt. Col. James H "Jimmy" Doolittle led the Doolittle Raid, in which 16 B25B crews took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) and bombed Toyko and other targets, the first time US aircraft had bombed Japan.

The75-mm cannon in the B-25G/H was used with mixed results, primarily against ships. The recoil from was 21 inches and momentarily stopped the plane in flight.

The Marine Corps received 706 B-25Bs, Cs, and Ds, which were redesignated PBJ-1, and used for antisubmarine patrol duties. Mitchells were later relegated to support duties and did not see service in Korea. The last B-25s were used to train pilots assigned to fly bombers and tankers.

Large numbers of B-25s were flown by the Soviet Union and Britain. It was also flown by the Netherlands,Taiwan, and Brazil. A number of surplus B-25s were used by civilian operators as aerial camera ships for Hollywood Movies. On May 21, 1960, the last serving aircraft, a VB-25J staff transport, was retired from service at Eglin AFB, Fla.
 

History of the  C-47 Skytrain

The C-47 transport, commonly referred to as "Gooney Bird," was one of  four weapons singled  out by Gen. Dwight D Eisenhower as the most instrumental in helping the US win World War II. (The others were the bazooka, the jeep, and the atomic bomb.) The C-47 was adapted from the DC-3 commercial airliner and was used to carry personnel and cargo, tow gliders (usually one Waco CG-4A), and drop paratroopers.Having great longevity, it was also used in Korea and in Vietnam, where it took on additional roles of attack as the AC-47 "Spooky" gunship and for psychological warfare missons.

The need to take supplies over the Himalayas led to the C-47B version with higher horsepower engines. Among the unusual variants of the C-47 was one where the engines were removed and it was converted into a glider and another was equipped with floats.The C-47 towed gliders and dropped 4,381 paratroopers in the invasion Sicily on July 10, 1943, C-47 crews dropped 60,000 paratroopers and towed several thousand CG-4 gliders at Normandy on June 6, 1944. C-47s were used extensively in the Berlin airlift.

In one notable action in Korea, C-47 crews flew 4,689 casualties out of the Chosin Reservoir area in five days.In Vietnam, the AC-47 gunships effectively suppressed enemy ground forces and picked up the secondary nickname of "Puff, the Magic Dragon." On February 24, 1969,while flying in a AC-47, A1C John L Levitow, stunned and wounded by shrapnel, flung himself on an activated, smoking magnesium flare, dragged himself and the flare to the open cargo door. and tossed the flare out of the aircraft. For saving his fellow crew members and the gunship, he was awared the Medal of Honor.AC-47s were replaced by AC-119s and AC-130s, and the last C-47 was retired from the Air Force in 1975...
 

History of the  C-54 Skymaster

  This long-range heavy transport gained its greatest fame in World War II, the Berlin Airlift, and the Korean War. Originally developed for the airlines, the first batch of what would have been DC-4s was commandeered off the assembly line by the Army Air Forces in 1942 and designated C-54. Production orders followed, and to meet the demand, Douglas started a second assembly line in Chicago, Ill., which would eventually produce nearly 60 percent of all C-54s built. C-54s were first delivered on March 20, 1942, and saw service in every theater and became the primary airlifter across the Atlantic and Pacific
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In the three years prior to V-J Day, C-54 crews made 79,642 crossings of the North Atlantic and only three aircraft were lost. The Navy received 201 C-54s, which were designated R5D. The first Presidential aircraft was the lone VC-54C, which was modified with a special hydraulic lift for Franklin D. Roosevelt's wheelchair. Nicknamed "Sacred Cow," it was used to take FDR to the Yalta Conference. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947,creating an independent Air Force, on board this aircraft on July 12, 1947. It is now on display at the US Air Force Museum. Winston Churchill , Gen Douglas MacArthur and Gen.Eisenhower used C-54s as their personal aircraft. On September 2, 1945, a C-54 crew made a record run of 31 hours, 25 minutes between Tokyo and Washington, D. C., to deliver films of the Japanese surrender ceremony on USS Missouri.
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 At the height of the Berlin Airlift, 319 of the roughly 400 C- 54s in service were hauling supplies to the city. On September 30, 1949, a C-54 crew made the last flight of the Berlin Airlift when it lifted off from Rhein-Main AB, West Germany. Less than six months later, on June 25, 1950, the first Air Force aircraft destroyed in the Korean War was a C-54 that was strafed on the ground at Kimpo AB, South Korea, by a pair of North Korean Yak fighters. C-54s were used for many other missions and saw limited Air Force service until 1972.

ATTENTION

This is not to contradict Jeff Rhodes in any way. I'm sure he spent many hours and considerable effort in compiling the data on these pages. However some of the information may have lost some of it's authenticity through the years.. This is an email from a man that was there. Ray thank you very much for your correction.

History of the C-97 Stratofreighter
 

The C/KC-97 series was a transport and definitive early tanker aircraft that had its design origin in the B-29. Boeing engineers essentially stacked one fuselage on top of another in a "double bubble" arrangement and used the same wings, engines, and tails as the Superfortress. Shortly after it made its first flight, a C-97 was flown nonstop from Seattle, Wash., to Washington, D C., in six hours, four minutes at an average speed of 383 mph, while carrying a payload of 10 tons. Only 74 cargo variants were built, while 816 were KC-97 tankers.

In its cargo version, early models were used extensively to bring Korean War casualties back to the US west coast from Japan. The later C-97s used an overhead rail cargo delivery system. Several aircraft were modified to a straight passenger configuration and were designated VC-97. Many other aircraft were modified for specialized roles, such as electronic reconnaissance. A small number of KC-97s were sold to Israel. Starting in 1956, Air Force KC-97s were gradually replaced by KC-135 jet tankers.

Later in their career, KC-97s had two jet engines added so that the type could match speeds with the jet fighters and bombers they were refueling. Even so, most of the time the tankers had to enter a shallow dive to keep up. Eighteen Air National Guard squadrons were eventually equipped with KC-97s, and the last were retired in 1977.
 

History of the C-124 Globemaster II

The Air Force's long-range airlifter that performed yeoman service through two wars and nearly 25 years, the C-124 was a major redesign of the C-74 that was developed at the end of World War II. The C-124 used the same wings, tail, and engines as the C-74 but had a deeper fuselage that featured clamshell doors in the nose that allowed for driving vehicles on and off under their own power. The C-124 retained the C-74's electrically operated elevator in the rear of the aircraft for loading of bulk cargo.

The first operational aircraft were delivered in May 1950, and production ran through May 1955 (204 C- 124As and 243 C-124Cs). The improved C-124C featured more-powerful engines, as well as wingtip-mounted combustion heaters that provided cabin heating and wing and tail surface deicing, and an APS-42 weather radar in a distinctive nose "thimble." These latter improvements were eventually retrofitted to the C-124As. Shortly after entering service with Military Air Transport Service and Troop Carrier Command, the C-124 suffered two isolated accidents (December 1950 and June 1951) each resulting in what was then the largest number of people killed in a single aircraft accident (86 and 129, respectively).

The C-124 went on to provide a much-needed airlift capability in the Korean War, as it was the only aircraft that could carry many of the Army's vehicles. Nicknamed "Old Shaky," the C-124 saw service all over the world, from Antarctic resupply flights, to refugee evacuation in the Congo, to mercy flights in Chile and elsewhere. C-124s were used to deliver supplies to the French in Indochina in 1954–55 and then were regularly flown to Vietnam through the US buildup in the 1960s. While reliable, the C-124s were slow (97 hours from Travis AFB, Calif., to Tan Son Nhut AB, South Vietnam, and back), and they were all the Air Force had until the C-133, and later C-141 and C-5, came along. Most C-124s were transferred to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve by 1970. The type was phased out of service in mid-1974.
 
Thank you for visiting my airplane pages, doing these brought back a lot of memories, some good, some scary as hell,  Tom