Air Transport Command
[5] However, it was Britain's Royal Air Force which needed massive reinforcement, especially after the losses it incurred on the continent during the German invasion of the Low Countries and France during May 1940.[6] United States civilian pilots, contracted by the British, would pick up their aircraft at the production facility and fly them to designated transfer points in the Montreal area where the modifications could be made.By ferrying these bombers under their own power, vital shipping space was saved and factory-to-combat delivery time was cut from approximately three months to less than ten days.In the spring of 1941, the Roosevelt Administration was committed to give all possible help, short of actual combat, to the United Kingdom and the remnants of her allies against Nazi Germany.Air Corps units were in need of training in long-range navigation, weather and radio-flying that a coast-to-coast ferrying service would give them in the latest models of aircraft.With the North Atlantic sea lanes vulnerable to German U-boat attacks, Major General Henry H. Arnold established the Air Corps Ferrying Command on 29 May 1941, to deliver lend-lease aircraft overseas from the US.The second assignment provided specific authority for the establishment of a military air transport service over the North Atlantic between the US and the United Kingdom, a project which had been under consideration for some months.More highly qualified four-engine pilots of the Combat Command, as well as navigators and other crew members, were borrowed to fly the trans-Atlantic transport shuttle.[6] In Southern California, the Long Beach Municipal Airport was leased by the War Department as a concentration point for all aircraft, except for B-24s to be ferried directly from the Consolidated plant.[6] To replace and supplement Montreal as a transfer point, Ferrying Command then initiated development of airfields in northern Maine, some 300 miles nearer the United Kingdom than the Canadian city, at Presque Isle, Houlton and Millinocket.[7] After the US entered World War II, it became clear that the fastest and most economical method of moving combat aircraft from the factory to the front, which might be 10,000 to 15,000 miles away due to the worldwide nature of the conflict, was to ferry them under their own power.[7] By early 1942, it had become clear that the Philippines could not be held, principally because the Japanese had cut the only sea and air lanes over which available reinforcements, such as they were, could reach General MacArthur.Fighter aircraft for the Ninth and Tenth Air Forces and for the American Volunteer Group in China were shipped by water to the west coast of Africa where they were assembled and flown overland to their destinations.[7] Air transport services conducted by the Ferrying Command (before the Pearl Harbor attack), were first to Britain beginning July 1941 and later in October to Cairo.They were like courier services and were secondary to the major job for which the command was created, that of ferrying aircraft from US factories to Canada and onward to Britain or to US ports of embarkation.[9][10] The ferrying activity continued to increase as more aircraft were turned out by the factories, as new combat units became ready for deployment overseas, and as the need for battle replacements grew more and more emphasis came to be placed on the air transportation function.They had the wealth of practical knowledge in conducting scheduled air transport operations, the administrative competence, and the mastery of techniques that came from long experience.In response, General Arnold proposed that the AAF instead control and direct such a service, primarily composed of pilots and aircraft contracted from U.S. civilian airlines.[8] The new Air Transport Command was initially only a semi-military organization, with most of its leadership coming from the ranks of airline executives who accepted direct USAAF commissions, usually as colonels or majors.[13] In 1942, at the personal request of General 'Hap' Arnold, C. R. Smith, formerly president of American Airlines, was commissioned a colonel in ATC and made its executive officer, thereafter assuming the positions of Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander.[12] However, due to a lack of navigation aids, personnel, suitable airfields and maintenance facilities, and above all, sufficient multi-engine transport aircraft suited to the difficult flight conditions, tonnage levels flown to China over The Hump did not appreciably increase until late 1943.In the China-India theater, the C-54, with nearly five times the load capacity of the C-47 and twice that of the C-46, significantly increased cargo tonnage levels flown to China, becoming the primary lifter for Hump operations.[12] Even though the C-54 had a service ceiling of only 12,000 feet, plans were made to replace all the C-87s in the Hump operation with Skymasters by October 1945, and have 540 assigned by April 1946 to bring load capability up to 86,000 tons monthly.[11] In its final full month of wartime operations (July 1945), ATC carried 275,000 passengers (50,000 domestically) and 100,000 tons of mail and cargo, 96.7% of it overseas.[7] The Air Transport Command fielded the Rockets football team with several notable former college and professional players, such as Vernon Martin of the Pittsburgh Steelers.Senior USAAF authorities considered ATC to be a wartime necessity that was no longer needed, and expected its civilian personnel, including former airline pilots, to return to their peacetime occupations.The Ferrying Division absorbed the Domestic Transportation Wing (created March 1943 for military passenger and cargo service within the ZI) on 27 November 1944.
Air Transport Command (disambiguation)Air Mobility CommandUnited StatesUnited States Army Air ForcesWorld War IIUnited States Air ForceferryingMilitary Air Transport ServiceMilitary Airlift CommandairliftBoeing Model 40SacramentoSan AntonioFairfieldMiddletown1st Air Transport GroupBellanca AircruisersDouglas DC-2s10th Transport GroupRoyal Air ForceNewfoundlandRoosevelt AdministrationNazi GermanyLend-Lease ActOffice of the Chief of Air CorpsNorth AtlanticHenry H. ArnoldRobert OldsGHQ Air ForceBarksdale FieldLouisianaPearl Harbor attackBoeingSeattleLockheedConsolidatedDouglasNorth AmericanVulteeLong Beach Municipal AirportBoeing FieldWayne County AirportRomulus, MichiganMontrealQuebecSalt Lake CityOmaha, NebraskaTucson, ArizonaMidlandDallasNew OrleansOklahomaScott FieldIllinoisPatterson FieldJackson, MississippiAtlantaFort BraggNorth CarolinaBolling FieldMitchel FieldNew YorkRAF Ferry CommandPresque IsleHoultonMillinocketHoulton Army Airfield7th Ferrying Group6th Ferrying Group5th Ferrying Group4th Ferrying GroupBuffalo, New YorkColumbus, OhioWillow RunYpsilanti, MichiganNortheast SectorNorth Atlantic routeNorthwest Staging RouteAlaskaSoviet UnionSiberiaSouth Pacific air ferry route in World War IIAustraliaSouth Atlantic air ferry routeWest AfricaNatal, BrazilMiddle EastAzoresNorth AfricaPhilippinesSingaporeNetherlands East IndiesPan American ClippersTWA StratolinersB-24 LiberatorsPersiaNinth Air ForceTenth Air ForceAmerican Volunteer GroupAir Transport Association of AmericaEdgar S. GorrellAir ServiceCivil Aeronautics AdministrationCivil Aeronautics BoardWhite HouseAir Service Command50th Transport WingI Troop Carrier CommandHarold L. GeorgeServices of SupplySecretary of WarC-47 SkytrainC-87 Liberator ExpressB-24 LiberatorC. R. SmithAmerican Airlinesthe HumpC-46 CommandoC-54 SkymasterPloieștiTobrukOkinawasubmarine chasersCatalina seaplanesVernon MartinDepartment of Defense