Curtiss C-46
| Curtiss C-46 Commando | |
|---|---|
 USAF Curtiss C-46 "Commando" |
|
| Type: | Transport plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
March 26, 1940 |
| Commissioning: |
1940 |
| Production time: |
1940 to 1945 |
| Number of pieces: |
3181 |
The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a low wing transport aircraft produced by the US aircraft manufacturer Curtiss-Wright , which is powered by two piston engines. The machine was always in the shadow of the C-47 / DC-3 ; It is often forgotten that the C-46 was the largest twin-engine aircraft in the world in its time .
history
construction
The aircraft was a twin-engine low / middle wing in half-shell construction with a simple tail unit . The fuselage had a cross-section made up of two circular segments so that it offered sufficient space for passengers and cargo. From the front, the airframe is reminiscent of a figure eight; in most versions the cockpit had cockpit windows that were flush with the contour of the fuselage. In contrast to the CW-20, the C-46 was not equipped with a pressurized cabin .
development
A new aircraft was to replace the old Condor and other biplane types at Curtiss. So in 1936 the development of the CW-20 began. Construction of the CW-20T prototype began at the Curtiss facility in St. Louis , Missouri before the first order was placed. The machine (NX19436) had its maiden flight on March 26, 1940. The aircraft had a double tail unit and used Wright Cyclone R-2600 with 1,600 hp. In the course of the test, the tail unit was changed to a conventional design. The first model (CW-20A) was presented to the airlines over New York with civil livery , but was the only C-55 to be captured by the USAAF on June 20, 1941 . Three months later she was used under the registration G-AGDI by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) between Malta and Gibraltar . But there was a lack of spare parts, so that the BOAC decommissioned it in October 1943 and finally scrapped it.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor , USAAF found that the air transport capacity was insufficient for a war of this magnitude. So 200 aircraft were ordered as C-46A Commando with the company name CW-20B. The aircraft were given a cargo hatch on the side and a reinforced cabin floor, and folding seats were also considered sufficient for the passengers . From the C-46B onwards, R-2800 twin radial engines from Pratt & Whitney were used. In the later versions, instead of the Curtiss Electric four- blade propeller , Hamilton standard three-blade propellers were used. However, they remained practically interchangeable with one another.
C-76 caravan
At the beginning of the war it was feared that aluminum production would not be sufficient, so an aircraft mainly made of wood was requested, which could replace the DC-3 / C-47 . This construction was called the C-76 Caravan ; it had nothing in common with the C-46 except the manufacturer. But only 25 machines were built because the fears were not confirmed.
commitment
The first C-46 were used for transfer flights in the South Atlantic. Because of its range and robustness, the Commando was mainly used in Asia and the Pacific. The most famous use was the route over the " hump ", the transport from Assam in India to southwest China over the Himalayan massif. Here was the 14th Air Force , which was formed from the Flying Tigers . To do this, all supplies had to be loaded and flown under the most primitive conditions. The fuel was pumped from barrels by hand and had to be started from mostly unpaved slopes that turned into mud in the monsoon rains. After that, the cargo had to be flown over 4,300 m high peaks, with a layer of ice forming on the aircraft from 3,000 m. The navigation aids first had to be delivered from the USA to British India and then from the C-46 to the Republic of China . There were also Japanese air raids on the transports.
In the US Navy and the US Marine Corps , the C-46 was designated as the R5C-1 . Even after the Allied victory over Japan , many C-46s were still in service with the USAAF and later the US Air Force . They were used in both the Korean War and the Berlin Airlift . The last C-46 Commando were not taken out of service by the USAF Reserve until 1955.
The Curtiss C-46 ended its role as a military machine in Asia , but its original purpose awaited in commercial use. In Latin America and the Caribbean , the C-46 was used as a cargo plane for many years. In 1985, 300 aircraft were still in use, over 45 years after their first flight. In 1995 there were still 150 machines. The Lufthansa used from 1961 leased C-46 for cargo transportation.
production
Acceptance of the C-46 / C-55 by the USAAF:
| Manufacturer | version | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curtiss, Buffalo | C-55 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| C-46 | 46 | 353 | 1152 | 1159 | 1 | 2711 | ||
| Curtiss, Louisville | 165 | 273 | 438 | |||||
| Curtiss, St. Louis | 2 | 27 | 29 | |||||
| Higgins, New Orleans | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| TOTAL | 1 | 46 | 353 | 1321 | 1459 | 1 | 3181 |
Military users
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Egypt
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Bolivia
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Brazil
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People's Republic of China
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Dominican Republic
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Haiti
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Israel
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Japan
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Colombia : 1 -
South Korea
-
Cuba
-
Mexico
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Peru
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Taiwan
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Soviet Union : 1 (WNr. 342) delivered under the Lend Lease Act -
United States
Incidents
From the first flight in 1940 to September 2019, the C-46 suffered 1,085 total losses. This corresponds to around a third (34.11 percent) of all 3,181 aircraft of this type produced. In 293 of them, 2566 people were killed. The vast majority of losses occurred in military operations (73%) and on cargo flights (17%); civil passenger flights accounted for only 7%.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data from the C-46R Commando |
|---|---|
| Type | Medium-haul passenger / cargo aircraft |
| length | 23.27 m |
| span | 32.92 m |
| height | 6.63 m |
| Wing area | 126.16 m² |
| Empty mass | 13,290 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 22,680 kg |
| Engines | two 18-cylinder double radial engines R- 2800-34 Double Wasp |
| Propellers | Hamilton three-blade, controllable pitch propeller |
| power | 2 × 2,130 hp |
| Top speed | 435 km / h at an altitude of 3,048 m |
| Service ceiling | 6,706 m |
| Range | 2,897 km |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Statistical Digest of the USAF 1946, p. 100 ff.
- ↑ Hans-Joachim Mau, Hans Heiri Stapfer: Under the Red Star - Lend Lease Aircraft for the Soviet Union 1941-1945. Transpress, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-344-70710-8 , pp. 142-144
- ↑ Curtiss C-46 accident statistics , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 17, 2019.