This Day in Aviation History
November 24th, 1947
First flight of the Convair XC-99.
 
The Convair XC-99, AF Ser. No. 43-52436, is a prototype heavy cargo aircraft built by Convair for the United States Air Force. It was the largest piston-engined land-based transport aircraft ever built, and was developed from the Convair B-36 bomber, sharing the wings and some other structures with it. The first flight was on 24 November 1947 in San Diego, California, and after testing it was delivered to the Air Force on 26 May 1949. The Convair Model 37 was a planned civil passenger variant based on the XC-99 but was not built….
 
Source:
Wikipedia, Convair XC-99: http://gstv.us/1H1tHts
 
YouTube, Convair XC-99 First Flight: http://gstv.us/1H1tOVN
 
YouTube, 1956 XC-99 Sets Records: http://gstv.us/1H1tOoL
 
Today the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has the only example of the XC-99 ever built. It is awaiting restoration. Here is a Warbird Information Exchange thread detailing what stage of restoration it is in and includes some photos: http://gstv.us/1H1u1Zd
 
If you enjoy the “This Day in Aviation History” collection, you may enjoy some of these other collections from Gazing Skyward TV: http://gstv.us/GSTVcollections
 
Photo from: http://gstv.us/1H1uaM8
 
#Convair #XC99 #transport #USAF #USA #avgeek #aviation #history #fb