C-54 Skymaster’s last flight brings history to St. George aviation museum

ST. GEORGE — A plane with 77 years of history landed at St. George Regional Airport last week. 

A 77-year-old Douglas C-54 Skymaster lands to complete what is likely its last flight at St. George Regional Airport, St. George, Utah, April 28, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Gerard Dauphinais, St. George News

The C-54 Skymaster was finishing what was likely its last flight after nearly eight decades of service as a U.S. Army and Navy transport and cargo carrier, dousing brush fires in California, killing tree bugs in Canada and dispersing oil spills in the waters off Florida. 

The plane is the newest piece of history to be added to the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum at the airport and is also now the largest on display at about 93 feet long with a wingspan of 117 feet.  

Jack Hunter, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, started the museum at what is now Tech Ridge in 2006 with just one plane and the growing fleet moved to the new airport in 2011. There is no admission fee, though donations of $2 for individuals and $5 for families are suggested. 

Hunter, who said he has been trying to get the C-54 leased to the museum for five years, stood in wonder at the just arrived four-propeller carrier. He is just a year older than the plane itself.

“It’s just phenomenal. I mean, you know, that’s a lifetime. You don’t get many of these airplanes anymore,” Hunter said. “In fact, there’s very few, if any, flying right now.”

That wonder also belonged to 13-year-old James Matson, who serves as a junior volunteer at the museum and was on hand to greet the Skymaster. 

Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum volunteer Steven Shepherd, right, shows 13-year-old junior volunteer James Matson the underside of the Douglas C-54 Skymaster at St. George Regional Airport, St. George, Utah, April 28, 2022 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

Wearing a hat with the retired supersonic SR-71 Blackbird on it, he got to ride in an airport vehicle to the runway, stand next to it as the vintage plane landed and then helped taxi in the plane. 

“It was used to transport cargo, like for the military,” said Matson, who added he got into older, historical planes after doing research on them. “They just kind of seem a bit cool.”

Hunter said seeing young James get excited about seeing the Skymaster’s arrival warmed his heart. 

“We built this museum so school kids, so kids could come out and know history. You don’t teach it in schools anymore,” Hunter said. “Not only the airplane but the people that flew them. You remember, during the war, these were 19- and 20-year-old people flying these. They weren’t old people. They were young people.”

A journey fraught with setbacks and challenges

Hunter said it took $40,000 of fuel and a two-day journey from Gainesville, Florida, with refueling stops in Austin, Texas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to get the Skymaster to its final destination in St. George. But in actuality, the trip took longer than that.

Hunter said, the plane had to have its landing gear repaired and get the necessary permits to be flyable again after a few years in storage that like many things was extended by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Originally scheduled to come in at the start of the week, the trip was delayed two days to wait for just the right weather along the southern U.S. – the older plane was mostly relying on visuals, rather than modern radar equipment, to traverse the country at between 5,000 and 8,000 feet above the ground. 

And in one more sign of the plane showing it’s ready to be done, one of its four engines gave out over the Grand Canyon. But losing an engine never was a game-ender for the C-54. While high winds made the landing in St. George a little wobbly, it finished its journey.

Retired Col. Jack Hunter, founder of the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum, stands in front of the museum’s newly arrived Douglas C-54 Skymaster at St. George Regional Airport, St. George, Utah, April 28, 2022 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

The museum is leasing the plane for five years with the option to lease it for five more. 

“They’ve put a lot of effort to get that airplane here,” Hunter said. “It cost them a lot of money to bring it here.”

A part of the Berlin Airlift

The Skymaster’s outside fuselage shows the wrinkles of its age in the form of removed decals and paint, including the outline of U.S. military stars and bars and Navy markings that used to grace the plane. 

Inside the wheel wells can be seen decades of oil and fuel. Just after landing, hot oil was dripping off the wings. 

A cargo and military version of the passenger DC-4 plane, the Skymaster was a workhorse of the U.S. military in the 1940s and ’50s. The second presidential plane, before the callsign Air Force One was created, was a C-54 that carried presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. But to most aviation enthusiasts, it is remembered as the workhorse of the Berlin Airlift. 

A C-54 aircraft landing as part of the post-World War II Berlin Airlift, Berlin, Germany, 1948 | Photo courtesy of United States Air Force Historical Research Agency, St. George News

Mike Stallman, one of the plane’s operators aboard the plane for its two-day Florida to Utah journey, said this particular Skymaster was built in April 1945 at the tail-end of World War II. 

According to Federal Aviation Administration registries, it was first used by the United States Army Air Force and transferred within the year to the U.S. Navy. 

“You can still see signs up here where it says United States Navy. The old stars and bars underneath five, five, Charlie whiskey,” Stallman said, pointing at the N55CW registry at the rear of the plane. “It was a military transport for a long time.”

That included during the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and 1949 where 2.3 million tons of cargo and goods were brought into West Berlin, Germany, to get past a Soviet Union and East Germany blockade around the city. 

While Stallman doesn’t know for sure whether the C-54 now in St. George was a part of the Berlin Airlift, it more than likely was since according to historical records, every C-54 in military service at the time was drafted for the airlift. 

“I know they scoured the world and cleaned out every place they had spare ones,” Stallman said. “They sent them to Berlin.”

Perhaps the most famous Utah native who was involved in the Berlin Airlift was Col. Gail Halvorsen, who passed away in February. Halvorsen, known as the “Candy Bomber” for dropping 23 tons of candy to the people of Berlin, made one of his last public appearances last July 3 at the KONY 4th of July Celebration in St. George

“Candy Bomber” Gail Halvorsen waves to fans during Utah Summer Games opening ceremonies, Cedar City, Utah, June 14, 2018 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

It’s unknown for certain, but it’s possible that the C-54 now in St. George had the candy bomber aboard at some point during the Berlin Airlift. Hunter said that with the family’s permission, the plane will be renamed in Halverson’s honor. 

“We want to make this a memorial,” Hunter said. “We could make it just like his airplane.”

Whether it served as part of the Berlin Airlift, the museum’s new Skymaster remained in service with the U.S. Navy until it became a Christmas present for Southern California firefighters.

Becoming a protector of forests

On Dec. 26, 1974, the plane was transferred to a contractor with the U.S. Forest Service, according to its FAA registration. Based for much of that time in Lancaster, California, it was used to drop water and/or retardant on brush fires in Southern California for the next six years. Just as they had been a workhorse in Berlin, the C-54 was a vital part of the aerial firefighting fleet against brush fires in the West in the 1970s and 80s.  

“The forest service took a bunch of these. And these were the main fire bombers,” Stallman said.

After serving to put out fires in California, the museum’s C-54 was re-christened with a Canadian registration to put out a different kind of forest disaster north of the U.S. border. Purchased by a Canadian aerial spraying company in March 1981, it went into service spraying insecticide over Canadian national forests to kill invasive pests killing trees. 

“They used to put tanks in it for spruce budworm up in Canada,” Stallman said.

The plane flew into a new century as a cargo-carrying Canadian. It was bought in the summer of 2003 by Canadian airline Buffalo Airways, known for using older WWII-era planes and the subject of the long-running History Channel program “Ice Pilots NWT.” 

The cockpit of the Douglas C-54 Skymaster that is the newest addition to the Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum, St. George, Utah, April 28, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Gerard Dauphinais, St. George News

After moving cargo across the Northwest Territories for nearly a decade, the museum’s C-54 regained its stars and stripes and American registration in November 20111 after having a U.S. aircraft trust gain co-ownership and being returned to the states, where it was based in Florida as an aerial oil disperser. That’s when Stallman became acquainted with the plane.  

“I went up about 12 years ago and picked it up in Red Deer (Canada) and flew it to Florida,” Stallman said. “We used it down there on a contract for oil spills, dispersant in case there was ship sinking or whatever.”

Stallman said the plane was always on standby, but never actually went on an oil dispersing mission. And with the risk of continued exposure to the Florida elements of salty seawater and hurricanes causing more permanent damage, Stallman said that like many other retirees, St. George is a good place for the C-54 to finish what he said was likely its last trip. 

“It’s like a tractor-trailer from 1945. We could still get it to work with them. Their time has just passed and it’s sad,” Stallman said. “I’m glad I had a chance to fly it one more time.”

More planes on the way

Now parked on a dirt field next to the museum’s hanger, the C-54 will be a prominent sight on Airport Parkway. Hunter said the museum plans to not only have the plane on display but also will allow the public to go inside – including to the cockpit – after a more sturdy stairway is added.

It’s also the first of what will be several new additions to the museum in the coming months.

One of the additions came in just a day before the C-54: A 1959 British Hunting P-84 that was used to train Royal Air Force pilots. But unlike the Skymaster, it couldn’t be flown in because the jet came without an engine. So volunteers transported the plane via pickup in two trips – the first without its wings.

Western Sky Aviation Warbird Museum volunteers work on an engineless 1959 British Hunting P-84 training jet that arrived the day before at St. George Regional Airport, St. George, Utah, April 28, 2022 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

Just before the C-54’s arrival, Steven Shepherd and other volunteers had just finished reattaching the plane’s wings.

Shepherd and the other volunteers don’t get paid, except in paying up their love of aviation.

“We’ve got to get the word out on this place,” Shepherd said. 

Later this month, a flyable B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-25 bomber will be spending a week at the museum and for a fee, the public will be able to take to the air in them including sitting in the gunners’ turrets. It’s a return visit after a similar event in 2020Also coming to the museum for a limited time will be a P-51 Mustang and a T-33 Blue Angel.

But even while excited about what’s to come, Hunter can’t help but turn and continue to gaze at the Skymaster.

“Now we’ve got this beautiful airplane,” Hunter said. “It’s going to be kind of fun.”

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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