Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum volunteers are planning to move a C-119 “Flying Boxcar” aircraft the museum purchased in 2019 to a display site near the Columbus Municipal Airport later this month.
The Columbus Board of Public Works approved a request Tuesday to close Ray Boll Boulevard May 18 so that a crane may pull the plane down the road to its display site just south of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft near the museum.
However, museum volunteers are asking area residents not to come out to watch due to pandemic and other safety concerns. The Republic will be covering the event and will have photos of the move in print and at therepublic.com.
The 40,000-pound plane, which is not airworthy, was taken apart last year at an airport in Greybull, Wyoming, where the aircraft’s parts were loaded onto trucks and driven 1,460 miles to the Columbus Municipal Airport. The final pieces of the aircraft arrived in July.
Renderings of the display site posted on the museum’s Facebook page show the plane facing northwest and placed diagonally across the site, pointing directly toward the Atterbury Bakalar Air Museum at 4742 Ray Boll Blvd. In addition, a sidewalk will loop around the aircraft and connect to an existing sidewalk that runs perpendicular to the boulevard.
When assembled, the C-119 will be considerably larger than the F-4 Phantom currently on display. The C-119 is about 86 feet long, has a 110-foot wingspan and is 27 feet tall at the tail. By comparison, the F-4 Phantom is about 58 feet long, 16.5 feet tall and has a wingspan of nearly 38.5 feet, according to the aircraft’s manufacturer.
The Flying Boxcars are of particular historical significance to Columbus, according to museum volunteers. Here, the pilots referred to them as the “Dollar Nineteens,” according to museum records.
From 1957 to 1969, 36 C-119s for the 434th Troop Carrier Wing were stationed at Bakalar Air Force Base, which is now Columbus Municipal Airport. The C-119s were a staple in Columbus, flown out of the base longer than any other aircraft.
The Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum purchased the plane for $15,000 in 2019.
