By Ian Thompson | DAILY REPUBLIC | July 16, 2008
TRAVIS AFB - Nearly 50 years after it served here with the 84th Air Transport Squadron, the C-133A Cargomaster transport aircraft No. 6199 will be returning.
The Jimmy Doolittle Air and Space Museum is raising money to pay for fuel to fly the last flight-worthy C-133A in existence from Alaska to Travis on Aug. 30 as part of the 2008 Air Expo.
'It will be a great exhibit,' said museum director Terry Juran of the C-133, which NASA once called the first step to space because it carried the Apollo space capsule among its many missions for the agency.
The C-133A is being donated to the museum by Maurice Carlson, the owner of Cargomaster Inc., which used the large plane to haul outsized cargo ranging from road graders to school buses in Alaska.
'It flew cargo that no other plane could carry,' said Cal Taylor, an aviation author and former C-133 navigator who documented the C-133's legacy in a book, 'Remembering the Unsung Giant: The Douglas C-133 and its People.'
Taylor hopes to ride in the navigator's seat of the venerable four-engine, turboprop air transport during the flight from McChord Air Force Base, Wash., to Travis.
After an overnight stop at McChord, the C-133A will fly to Travis and make several low passes over the Air Expo crowd before landing.
The museum and a group of former C-133 fliers are working to raise the money needed for the C-133's flight from Anchorage, Alaska to Travis.
It will cost about $67,000 to make the flight, with the primary expense being fuel. The C-133A's supporters have raised more than $53,800 so far, according to the supporters' Web site.
'This has caused quite a stir in the aviation community,' Juran said. 'Even a company from the Netherlands that does airlift donated money for fuel.'
Any funds left over will be used to help pay for the C-133's restoration and maintenance.
See the complete story at the Daily Republic Online.
