During warfare, transport aircraft perform
highly dangerous missions moving personnel, equipment, and vital supplies to
keep fighters and bombers aloft. However, the loading and unloading stages
of the missions can often take a long time, leaving both the precious cargo and the
personnel extremely vulnerable to attacks. As the C-119, a powerful Fairchild cargo
aircraft emerged during the Korean War, the engineers believed it could be further enhanced
with detachable pods to expedite the process. This led to the experimental
contract of the XC-120 Packplane, a converted C-119 with a
detachable cargo compartment. One of the most unconventional aircraft of the
postwar era, Fairchild believed that the removable fuselage transport plane would have radical
implications in the field of military logistics, as well as subsequent civilian applications such
as portable hospitals, radar stations, command centers, airport control towers, communication
centers, and even shelters for Arctic rescue work. For a moment in time, the
possibilities were endless… The Flying Boxcar Fairchild’s C-119, first flown in 1947, became one of the most utilitarian-military
cargo aircraft of the postwar era. Developed from the existing Fairchild
C-82 Packet transport aircraft, the type featured a large and capacious fuselage
suspended from a twin-boom airframe, and thus the C-119 earned the nickname Flying Boxcar due to
its unusual design and cargo-hauling ability. Featuring clamshell cargo
doors at the rear of the cabin, which could be used to drop
cargo and parachuting troops, the C-119 could carry up to 62 fully equipped
American soldiers or 30,000 pounds of load. After its introduction in the late 1940s, the
Flying Boxcar was modified and upgraded as new technologies emerged over the decades,
and it served in various roles with great success in both the Korean and Vietnam
Wars, where it carried troops and supplies. One of the most important airlift missions of
the war was in the bitterly cold winter of 1950, in which C-119Bs were used to
air-drop bridge sections to US troops trapped by the Communist forces at
the Chosin Reservoir lake in North Korea. During one of these missions, the model's
components and sections were used to repair a bridge over a deep chasm, allowing thousands of
Army soldiers and Marines to escape to safety. Meanwhile, the Fairchild C-119
consistently made deliveries around the world throughout the Cold War. Armed with side-firing weapons, the AC-119G
Shadow and AC-119K Stinger configurations were also used as gunships to support
ground forces during the Vietnam war, as they could fire up to 6,000 rounds per minute
while flying low and slow over enemy positions. By the time production of the C-119 ceased in
1955, over 1,100 Flying Boxcars had been built. Packplane Shortly after the production of the C-119 began, the Fairchild engineers acquired an experimental
contract to further develop the model. Believing there was untapped potential in
the design, Fairfield engineer Armand J. Thieblot had a theory that a military
cargo plane could be solely equipped for a specific cargo delivery role
via a detachable fuselage module. As such, one of the most unusual transport
aircraft to ever take to the air was born. What set apart the all-metal, twin-engine
XC-120 Packplane from other aircraft was the detachable cargo pods that could be installed below its fuselage and used in place
of an internal freight compartment. This way, the XC-120 would serve as an
airborne tractor-trailer, capable of both picking up and expeditiously
delivering cargo-filled pods. Retaining the C-119's twin-boom configuration,
the new creation was fitted with an entirely new, drastically reduced central
fuselage with a flat bottom. In addition, various specialized cargo
pods could be attached depending on the cargo and the missions, and they
could be optimized for heavy cargo, personnel, and even equipment
and troops through parachutes. Other pods could even serve as portable
hospitals, radar stations, command centers, airport control towers, communication centers,
shelters for Arctic rescue work, and other uses. How It Worked The XC-120 had a total wingspan of 109 feet
and an 82-foot fuselage. With a planned maximum gross weight of 64,000 pounds, 30 percent
of it was destined for cargo capacity. The Packplane was operated by a five-man
crew and powered by two 3,250-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines,
reaching a top speed of 258 miles per hour. The major design challenge the Fairchild
designers faced was replacing the C-119's tricycle landing gear with a new
four-wheel undercarriage from scratch, with all four components built
into the type's twin booms. With this novelty landing gear used to accommodate
the different-sized cargo pods, the Packplane's ground clearance could be adjusted by raising
or lowering the height of the landing gear. The aircraft's cargo pod also had
four wheels of its own so that it could be easily maneuvered
on the ground by operators. It was also fitted with doors that
allowed for quick loading and unloading. Once positioned underneath the modified fuselage, the cargo pod was raised into position with
electric winches built into all corners of the fuselage and then locked into place by
a crew with ball-and-socket-style joints. The Packplane was intended to be
deployed to forward landing fields. It was expected that the aircraft would quickly
deposit its detachable pod and take off again, significantly reducing the
loiter time on the ground, as cargo aircraft are most vulnerable
during the laborious unloading missions. Then, while the forward ground personnel
unloaded the pod, the Packplane would make another trip to retrieve a new one. The idea
was that on its way back to the forward base, the XC-120 would drop off the new pod
and return home with the emptied one. Attracting Attention As was common in the aircraft industry, the Germans also came up with their own
version of the revolutionary XC-120. The Fieseler Fi-333, developed by the German
aircraft manufacturer Gerhard Fieseler Werke, featured a long and slender fuselage fitted
with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage. While the Fi-333 was designed to transport modular
cargo containers like its American counterpart, its proposed cargo pods would have been
considerably smaller when compared to each other. Still, the Fi-333 never got beyond
the drawing board, and the project, like many others during World War 2,
remained nothing more than a design project. The Flying Bloodmobile The Fairchild XC-120 Packplane first took
to the skies on August 11, 1950. As it was built by Fairchild manufacturer for the United
States Air Force, the transport plane departed the company's airport located at Hagerstown,
Maryland, and the flight lasted 45 minutes. Still, the maiden voyage
of the first container ship occurred almost six years later, in April of 1956. The XC-120 was tested extensively
throughout the decade and was widely publicized in the media as a
potentially revolutionary aircraft. In its account of the Packplane's first trial run,
the Associated Press news agency reported that: [QUOTE] "The XC-120 can land, drop off its
cargo-carrying 'pod' and leave it for ground crews to unload and reload as time conditions
permit[...] From a logistical standpoint, that will save precious time, provide greater mobility
and reduce potential loss under enemy attack." Also, on September 26, 1951, the New York Times
published a lengthy article on the potential uses of the Packplane. According to the report, the
giant cargo airship made its public debut at the 1951 Long Island Industrial Exposition
as the country's first flying bloodmobile. In an effort to help with the need for
blood, the US Army’s Chief of Staff and one-time Secretary of Defense General George
C. Marshall pushed a new donor program. As such, the Armed Forces decided that the
Packplane would be the perfect addition to the initiative. The project was made possible
through the collaboration between the Red Cross, Mitchel Air Force Base hospital, and the Air
Surgeon's General's office in Washington. The plans called for the backplane to be
flown into the exposition's grounds while wholly equipped and ready to use as a blood
bank. Staffed by Air Force doctors and nurses, the team received blood donations or pledges
for future contributions from visitors. Scrapped Despite an official order from the Air
Force to acquire over 1,100 C-119 aircraft, the service did not pursue the XC-120 further.
While the Packplane flew exceptionally well with the cargo pods attached, the aircraft
proved to be too unstable without it. Even famed flight engineer James Winnie,
who was part of the team during most of the aircraft's test flights at Eglin Air
Force Base, attested to the Packplane's multiple faults, commenting that he
was glad they only built one model. Even if the stability problem was sorted out by
Fairchild, the outbreak of the Korean War and the urgent need for increased C-119 production
were the final nail in the Packplane's coffin. As such, the only prototype
ever built was scrapped. After that, other approaches for
designing modular air transport have undergone conceptual definition
in the United States and overseas. But like the XC-120, they did not attract
serious interest from potential customers. Instead, both the commercial and military
aviation industries have remained loyal to the traditional tubular fuselage and wing-tail
transport design optimized for a single mission, such as passenger carriage,
large-cargo transport, and others. Nevertheless, the Fairchild XC-120 Packplane
remains an intriguing and innovative aviation concept that was ahead of its time in
1950 and remains as such to this day. Thank you for watching Dark Skies! Before you go,
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