Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum volunteers have finished installing two propellers on a C-119 “Flying Boxcar” aircraft that is now on display near Columbus Municipal Airport.
The roughly 38,000-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 truck and driven 1,460 miles to Columbus. At an airport hangar, much of the aircraft was gradually reassembled and restored over the course of several months before it was moved to its display site just south of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft in May.
The volunteers have now installed the aircraft’s two propellers, each weighing an estimated 300 pounds, or “more than a bunch of us can pick up,” said Skip Taylor, who is co-leading the C-119 project.
Overall, it took about six hours on July 14 to install the propellers, Taylor said.
“We figured (it would take) about a couple hours a piece and it just kind of fought us the whole way,” Taylor said. “So we ended up even having to get some extra equipment in there to help with the process.”
Next, the volunteers are gearing up to paint the aircraft but are still awaiting a shipment of paint, Taylor said.
The C-119, also known as the “Flying Boxcar” due to the unusual shape of its fuselage, was in service with the U.S. Air Force from 1947 to 1972 and was designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients and mechanized equipment. The aircraft was also used to drop cargo and troops using parachutes, according to the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum.
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.
The U.S. Air Force extensively used C-119s during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. Retired C-119s were also used as air tankers to fight wildfires in the United States.
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.
The particular C-119 purchased by the museum was built in Hagerstown, Maryland, for the Canadian Air Force, Taylor said. The aircraft was later acquired by Hawkins & Powers and used to fight forest fires. Its last known flight was in 1990.
