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Former military transport aircraft at the PIMA Air & Space Museum in Tucson. The military built about 1200 of these C-119 “Flying Boxcars” between 1945–1948, and they saw extensive use in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In addition, they were used in aerial recoveries of film-return capsules from orbiting satellites during the early years of the Corona spy satellite program.
The fleet was retired by the U.S. Military in 1974, but some of the planes were converted to civilian uses, such as delivering goods to remote villages in Alaska and fighting wildfires. Others were sold to other nations, including Taiwan, whose Air Force still used them until fairly recently.
- Jun 2009
- Taken with a Nikon D700