air transport

(mining engineering) Movement from one place to another of the filling material in a mine through pneumatic pipelines. Also known as air transportation.

The ability to move large amounts of military equipment and personnel around the globe by air offers many strategic and operational advantages, especially to those powers which consider themselves to have a world role. However, the potential has only slowly been realized and the development of true military transport aircraft with appropriate features only came to fruition in the 1950s.

Before 1918, aircraft were only used as transports in rare and exceptional circumstances, with improvised efforts having only limited success. However, after the cessation of hostilities, the major colonial powers began to recognize the potential of transport aircraft to link their enlarged empires together in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Aircraft facilitated the rapid deployment of troops and equipment to areas of unrest and maintained communications and links with largely inaccessible regions. Arguably the first purpose-built transport aircraft was the British Vickers Vernon which entered service in 1922, and replaced the Vickers Vimy bomber which had been used hitherto in a limited air transport role. The Vernon, and its successor the Vickers Victoria, were involved around the globe in policing, leafleting of civilians, and evacuation duties to name but a few. The French mirrored the British and used aircraft to forge links with North Africa in particular. In the early 1920s the USA purchased its first military transport aircraft, the T-2 from Fokker, a design which could carry 10, 850 lb (4, 925 kg).

However, the norm in the inter-war period was for large aircraft to be capable of fulfilling the role of both bomber and transport aircraft. In addition, many large aircraft of the period were either water-based aircraft such as flying boats, or were based on civil designs. This led to constraints being placed on the inclusion of transport aircraft features, such as large front or rear hatches, lowering doors, and a low-level cargo floor to facilitate loading and unloading of large pieces of equipment. The most famous of these inter-war types was the Junkers Ju 52 which performed a number of different tasks from bombing to the deployment of parachute troops. It was not particularly proficient at any task, but illustrated what could be done, most notably during the dropping of airborne forces in 1940 and in MERCURY, the capture of Crete in 1941. As a general workhorse the Ju 52 was invaluable, but it left a good deal to be desired as a transport aircraft.

The first aircraft to include many key transport features was the German designed Messerschmitt Me 321 Gigant introduced in 1941, which although a glider could boast a cavernous interior and large swinging doors in the nose. Up to 48, 500 lb (22, 000 kg) could be carried (three times the lift capacity of the Ju 52) including half-track vehicles, and 88 mm guns. The glider was superseded by a powered version, the Me 323, as well as a number of new designs, such as the Junkers Ju 352 and the Arado Ar 232. All developed the true transport aircraft still further.

The Allies produced large numbers of transport aircraft in WW II, most famously the Dakota (Douglas C-47) , but in essence this was a similar, although superior, aircraft to the Ju 52. Other transports developed the type more effectively, such as the Curtiss C-46 Commando and the Lockheed C-69 Constellation, though both still owed much to civil aircraft development. The use of gliders in WW II should also be noted for these aircraft allowed the deployment of troops and equipment in support of other airborne forces. As the war progressed the Allies in particular developed the role of airborne forces and the British introduced gliders such as the Airspeed Horsa and General Aircraft Hamilcar, both of which were used in Normandy and in the closing stages of the war. The Horsa could carry 25 fully equipped troops and the Hamilcar a 6.9 ton (7 tonne) armoured car. The Americans developed the Waco CG-4a as their principal glider of which almost 14, 000 were built.

However, the first fully fledged military transport aircraft was the Lockheed C-130 Hercules which appeared in 1954. This revolutionary design included all the major features of a transport aircraft, for example, a clear low-level cargo deck, large rear doors for loading/unloading and air-dropping of equipment, powerful engines, all-weather capability, and rough-field landing gear. The Hercules became the most widely adopted military transport aircraft and was used by 32 nations and was still in production a quarter of a century after it first appeared, with close on 2, 000 having been built.

The most significant developments since have surrounded the introduction of much larger transport aircraft, most notably the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy and the Soviet Antonov An-22 Antei. Both of these designs are capable of very long range and are able to carry over 60 tons (62.8 tonnes) of equipment, including tanks. Such aircraft provided ‘global reach’ for the superpowers and allowed the Soviets in particular to ferry equipment and supplies to allies such as Ethiopia and Angola, something which would have proved inordinately difficult with smaller and shorter ranged transports. In the post- Cold War world, the Galaxy allows the Americans to move troops and equipment around the world to support the USA's global role in a manner with which no other power can compete. Global reach was enhanced in the post-war world by the development of airborne tanker aircraft and mid-air refuelling techniques, which have allowed much longer range and reach to smaller combat aircraft. The US initially reworked the B-29 bomber into the KC-97 of which some 888 were built, but then moved on to a jet-propelled tanker, the KC-135—a design based on the Boeing 707 airliner.

From the early colonial communications and policing roles, through the development of airborne forces, into the Cold War links with allies, and now into the 21st century, air transport has had and continues to have a significant place in the development of modern warfare.

Bibliography

• Chapman, Keith, Military Air Transport Operations (London, 1989)

— Jamie Belich

1. the movement of personnel and cargo by air.

2. an aircraft designed to move personnel and/or cargo.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.