The Douglas transport had also captured the attention of high-ranking officers in the War and Navy Departments, and several C-54s were assigned to provide transport for VIPs. Shortly after the capture of Myitkyina, Brig. Gen. William H. Tunner arrived in India to take command of the India-China Wing of the ATC. Since some of the mountains overlooking the Assam reached well above 20,000 feet, C-54 operations had been ruled out. Even more important, the capture of the airfield deprived the Japanese of an advance fighter base from which they could threaten the Hump routes and also could serve as a base for American fighters. The capture of Myitkyina was undoubtedly the most fortuitous event of the war in the CBI Theater for the Allies.

• After necessary testing, the aircraft entered service as DC-6.
• It was similar to the C-54G, but was powered by four 1,725hp Merlin 620 engines.
• During the first years of ATC operations, there were no standardized procedures and each pilot operated by his own set of rules.
• Although the airplane was easy to fly and reliable, its high-altitude performance was limited.
• Army Air Transport Command and was perhaps the most important airplane to come out of the war.
• When Soviet forces blockaded West Berlin, the Skymaster airlifted supplies into the city, providing an essential link for the citizens of West Berlin.

Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian airliner, the Douglas DC-4.
The total fuel capacity went up to 3,740 US gallons. When all four auxiliary fuel tanks were used the C-54A could carry 3,620 US gallons of fuel. 97 seven were built at Santa Monica and 155 at Chicago. In 1948 another C-54D flew from Fairbank to Oslo via the North Pole in 22 hours. At the end of the war all of the remaining Skymasters were returned to the United States. One notable exception saw the Presidential VC-54C, accompanied by 33 other four-engined transports, take President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference.
As the war began winding down, the C-54s that had originally been contracted by the airlines were released from the military and placed in commercial service. Perhaps the most famous Skymaster was a specially built C-54C that was ordered as a presidential support aircraft for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Since the new bases in the Marianas were on islands, the massive numbers of transport forces that had deployed to India with them were not needed, so Arnold transferred them to Tunner’s command. General Henry “Hap” Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, decided that the cost of airlifting fuel and other supplies for B-29s from India to China was prohibitive and ordered the bomber force transferred to the Marianas, which had recently fallen into Allied hands.

Douglas C-54 Skymaster

The following batch of aircraft, designated C-54A, were built with a stronger floor and a cargo door with a hoist and winch. To meet military requirements, the first civil production aircraft had four additional auxiliary fuel tanks in the main cabin, which reduced the number of passenger seats to 26. Besides transport of cargo, the C-54 also carried presidents, prime ministers, and military staff. They served in air-sea rescue operations, scientific and military research, missile tracking, and recovery.
The XC-54F was the prototype for a planned series of paratrooper transports, which would have had two jump doors. 125 C-54Es were built, twenty of which went to the US Navy as the R5D-4. A total of 380 C-54Ds were built, all at Chicago.
These aircraft were known as the North Star in RCAF service. Early aircraft had the -3 engines, later production had the -7. The C-54A was a fully militarized version of the DC-4, with a reinforced cargo floor, a large (2.38m by 1.7m) cargo door and built-in cargo loading hoist. The C-54 returned to combat during the Korean War, at first evacuating 851 American civilians from South Korean, and then as a transport and casualty evacuation aircraft. After necessary testing, the aircraft entered service as DC-6.

South Korea

His rationale was that the C-54 was a safer airplane and its use would drastically reduce the accident rate on the Hump maniacasino airlift. In short, the capture of Myitkyina led to the attaining of air superiority over Burma—and opened the door for the introduction of the C-54 to the Hump airlift. Army provisional force under the command of Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill began an unannounced and initially unheralded walk into northern Burma.

• The presidential airplane was unique in that it included a number of features not present on other models.
• By mid-1945 the C-54 had come to symbolize the modern international airline system, a system that linked the entire world and reduced travel times from weeks and months to days and even hours.
• The first DC-4 was not completed until February 1942, and by then the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had forced the United States into the war.
• The C-54A was a fully militarized version of the DC-4, with a reinforced cargo floor, a large (2.38m by 1.7m) cargo door and built-in cargo loading hoist.
• The C-54E saw another change in the fuel arrangement.
• The aircraft’s versatility, the numerous accidents it was involved in, and a couple of vanishing acts have made it an iconic aircraft of US history.
• Even though the C-54 had not become the prime transport in the airlift to China, it had become a familiar around the rest of the world.

The contribution of Douglas C-54 Skymaster during Berlin Airlift

Over the next five years Air Transport Command Skymasters made 79,642 transoceanic flights, with only two forced ditching. The first C-54 Skymaster entered USAAF service on 20 March 1942, and by the end of the year enough had been delivered to begin to make a real impact. The resulting DC-4 had a circular fuselage, was powered by four engines, and used a tricycle undercarriage. The first had been judged to be too complex by the airlines, and in 1939 American, Eastern and United Air Lines got together with Douglas to draw up the specifications for a simpler machine.
According to Wendover Airfield, five Douglas C-54 Skymasters provided essential air logistics support to the operations of the atomic mission. The campaign for Okinawa, which took place in parallel to the Battle of Okinawa, 16,599 casualties were evacuated through aircraft by Army Air Forces, the Navy, and – approximately 60% of them flown out by VRE-1. In addition, the Sacred Cow also had a “battery-powered elevator was installed at the rear of the aircraft which allowed President Roosevelt to board the aircraft easily while in his wheelchair”. One of its unofficial nicknames was “Sacred Cow”, which was “a reference to the high security surrounding the aircraft and its special status”. The civilian aircraft Douglas DC-4 was first converted into the C-4, an aircraft type whose only 24 units were produced.

Operational history

Since it was a basic transport and needed no modification for military use, deliveries to the Army Air Forces began in June. The Ferrying Command also had its eye on Douglas Aircraft Company’s new DC-4, which the military designated as the C-54, although the command hedged its bets by also ordering the twin-engine Curtiss C-46 Commando. The converted Liberators were assigned to the recently established Air Corps Ferrying Command to establish a route system over which multiengine aircraft could be delivered to the combat zones. The newly established need for long-range transports became so great that when the Army received its first Consolidated B-24 Liberators 11 were converted into transports even though the type had been developed to fill a requirement for a long-range bomber to replace the Boeing B-17.
Canadair produced one prototype, seventeen  North Star Mk Is, and five North Star Mk MI with Merlin 622 engines. The C-54GM was built under licence by Canadair. The interior of the C-54E was designed to allow a rapid change between cargo plane, 50 seat troop transport or 44 seat staff transport. The final two auxiliary cabin tanks were removed, and replaced by collapsible bag-type fuel tanks built into the inner wing sections.
During the first years of ATC operations, there were no standardized procedures and each pilot operated by his own set of rules. The C-54 also featured a steerable nosewheel, a feature that allowed pilots far more control of their airplanes while taxiing and in the early stages of the takeoff roll before the rudder became effective. By 1943 substantial numbers of C-54s were starting to come into the ATC inventory, and the new four-engine transports soon became favored by the pilots and crew members who  flew them. Designated as the C-54A, the new version did not become available for military testing until February 1943. Thus, they were initially assigned primarily to transport high-priority passengers and dispatches.

When the Secret Service expressed doubts about the safety of the C-87, the USAAF turned to the Douglas Aircraft Company to build a military transport specifically to accommodate the special needs of the president.” “In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US president to fly in an airplane while in office when the Navy-owned, but civilian-operated Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, Dixie Clipper, transported the president to the Casablanca Conference. When the C-54C was introduced it became “the first aircraft purpose-built to fly the President of the United States”, which was heavily modified in line.

They managed to walk through several hundred miles of jungle and rough terrain and then captured the airfield in August, after almost six months in the field. Since it had been designed for airline use where it would receive regular maintenance, the C-54 suffered greatly from mechanical problems when it was operated under austere conditions such as those existing on the India-China ferry. The high altitudes required for the Hump fliers precluded the assignment of the C-54 to operations into China at the time. By 1943 the towering Himalayas were a frequent sight for ATC crews on their way to and from airfields in eastern India. Although the airplane was easy to fly and reliable, its high-altitude performance was limited.