Douglas C-74 Globemaster

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The Douglas C-74 Globemaster was the largest U. S. landplane next to the Douglas XB-19 when it flew for the first time on September 5, 1945. Pan Am ordered twenty-six from Douglas under the designation DC-7, but the order was cancelled in late 1945. The Air Force acquired fourteen Globemasters.

Douglas C-74 Globemaster plans

Rollout of the first C-74 Globemaster, 42-65402 at Long Beach, California. A ramp was constructed to raise the nosewheel and lower the tail so that the tail would clear the hangar door.

C-74, 42-65402 at Long Beach, California. Note the B-17s sitting without their engines in the background.

A Douglas A-26 Invader has been placed undernaeath the wing of the C-74 to emphasize the great bulk of the new transport. The freight loading elevator is resting on the ground underneath the Globemaster. It appears directly below the inboard engine.

The freight loading elevator of C-74, 42-65402 .

C-74, 42-65402 at Long Beach, California.

C-74, 42-65402 at Long Beach, California.

C-74, 42-65402 using reverse propeller pitch to back up at the General Electric Air Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York on June 22, 1946. Photographer: Richard Lockett.

C-74, 42-65402 in flight at the General Electric Air Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York on June 22, 1946. Photographer: Richard Lockett.

C-74, 42-65402 landing at the General Electric Air Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York on June 22, 1946. Photographer: Richard Lockett.

C-74, 42-65402 taxiing at the General Electric Air Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York on June 22, 1946. Photographer: Richard Lockett.

Douglas C-74 Globemaster, 42-65408 flying for the Military Air Transport Service (MATS). The two bubble canopies have been replaced by a single canopy that improved communication between the two pilots. All C-74 Globemasters were retired from active duty with the Air Force by July 1955.

Civilian Globemasters

C-74 42-65409 was retired from the Air Force in 1956.  After reconditioning at Oakland, California, it was registered by Air Systems in Panama as HP-379.  By 1963 it and two other civil Globemaster-Is were flying cargo in Europe.  It served as a Danish Dairy Cow transport to customers in Middle East countries. Its service is described in the book Flying Cowboys by Tad Houlihan. Air Systems went out of business after the crash of Globemaster Hp-385 (AF 42-65404) at Marseilles, France in October 1963. HP-379 was abandoned in Milan.  By 1969 it had been flown to the Turin Airport. 

C-74 HP-379 appearing in the Michael Caine film The Italian Job in 1989. The film company painted it in the colors of the fictitious Communist Chinese Civil Aviation Airlines Corporation for the movie. After the movie, the Globemaster was on public display until it caught fire on June 11, 1970.  While it was being salvaged, it caught fire a second time on September 24, killing two salvage workers. 

C-74 42-65408 was registered by Air Systems in Panama as HP-367. It is een here in Nicosia on September 17, 1963. It was dismantled at Milan, Italy in August 1972.  It was the last surviving Globemaster. Photo courtesy Jack Ford.

The disposition of the C-74 Globemasters:

The Air Force scrapped all the C-74s at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona in 1965.  The Air Force Museum scrapped the last vestige of Air Force Globemaster Is when they relegated the YC-124C, 42-65406 (the prototype of the Globemaster II which had been converted from C-74, 42-65406) to fire-fighting training in 1969.

42-65402 Scrapped at Davis-Monthan AFB 1965

42-65403 crashed Torrance, CA 5 August 46

42-65404, N3182G, HP-385 crashed at Marseilles, France 9 October 1963

42-65405 diverted to static test at Wright Field. Tested to destruction from August 1946 to November 1948

42-65406 converted to YC-124A, 42-65406. Consigned to fire training by the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 1969

42-65407 Scrapped at Davis-Monthan AFB 1965

42-65408, N8199H, HP-367 dismantled at Milan, Italy August 1972

42-65409, N3181G, HP-379 salvaged at Turin, Italy September 1970

42-65410 Scrapped at Davis-Monthan AFB 1965

42-65411 Scrapped at Davis-Monthan AFB 1965

42-65412, N3183G dismantled at Long Beach, CA 1964

42-65413 Scrapped at Davis-Monthan AFB 1965

42-65414 Served in the Berlin Airlift. Scrapped at Davis-Monthan AFB 1965

42-65415 Scrapped at Davis-Monthan AFB 1965

Books about the Douglas C-74 and C-124 Globemaster available from

Douglas Jumbo's: The Globemaster by Anthony J. Tambini

Aircraft of the United States' Military Air Transport Service by Nicholas M. Williams

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