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I believe I saw her once at Aden Airport OYAA back then in the late 1990s

Was on the last commercial flight of SAA DC4's when I was a nipper. We did the FACT/FAPE/FAEL leg.

Good to see Laurie Raath still flying.

Ah yes. Before the ANC wrecked a once-great State-Owned Entity!

As I understand, the decline of the use of the DC-4 and the DC-6 had more to do with the dificulty of obtaining avgas than the age of the aircraft, facilities became reluctant to ship and store the large quantities necessary to operate the piston engined birds.

In my language we called it the" lugbrug".... Air bridge..or Air lift. From Cape Town or Joburg to the locked in Berlin.... with food ,fuel,anything they needed...!!🛫🛬🛩

I was a flight engineer on the c54s in the 60s usaf

Flew on c54 back in 1969. Usmc was still flying some, loved it. Flew as 1st mech. some times. Became crew chief on c117 true love. Thank you for keeping them flying.

Flew one for Nordair in northern Canada and later for Carl Millard in Toronto. Like walking a St. Bernard

In 1960, when I was 7 years old , I watched my father board an American Airlines DC 4 in Tucson to fly a business meeting trip to San Francisco . Watching the planes engines startup and then taxi away was pretty enthralling . Then , to see it accelerate and lift off the runway, hearing the powerful harmonious sound of the 4 Pratt & Whitney R2600 engines was very impressive. As it lifted into the air I watched it fade away to the northwest horizon until it was a little spec .

The DC-4 also played a role in the airlift of some of the Hungarian refugees from Vienna to Canada after their escape from Communist Hungary in 1956-57. Many of the 40 thousand who applied for asylum in Canada were flown there on the DC-4, including my mother and me, on Maritime Central Airways. We departed Vienna Schwechat on the evening of July 3, 1957, and arrived in Moncton, NB (Canada) the following afternoon, after making refueling stops in Prestwick and Keflavik. The total elapsed time, including stops was about 24 hours. The flight was chartered from Maritime Central Airways that operated 4 DC-4's at the time. I have a copy of one of the captains' logbook for most of the year 1957, although he was not the pilot of our flight. However, I know for sure that our aircraft was CF-MCB.

Simply love this aircraft , it's story and its history . Can the piston engines be replaced with turboprop engines like Basler does for DC3 ? Bet it will get a new lease of life with greater speeds and fly at much higher altitudes. I think the turboprop engines will also make this aircraft far more reliable too.

I'm guessing SA will be resupplying Moscow these days. Right?

Good on the South Afrikaans for keeping this flying

I grew up as a kid in Park Ridge, IL in the 1960s which is near Chicago's O'Hare Field. Back then, I can recall the former Douglas-Chicago C-54 "Skymaster" assembly plant that still existed on the northeast side of O'Hare though it was pretty much completely empty at that time. Over half of the C-54s were built at this facility during WWII (the rest at Santa Monica, CA including all actual DC-4s following the war). Wonderful video on the South African Airways DC-4 flight to Berlin for the 50th anniversary of the airlift and thanks for sharing!

Like so much this aircraft...! I'm pilot. Thanks for posted this video.👍

Well come to Zanzibar 🇹🇿

Well done everybody. Awesome 👌🏻

Lovely old bird!

According to Wikipedia " At the height of the Airlift, one plane reached West Berlin every thirty seconds." NOT within 11 monthes constantly.

thank you for the upload. I had the great honour to grab three flights on this one during the time it spent in Europe. Unforgettable. Flippie Vermeulen in command.

There’s a C54 Skymaster, Lady Hope being restored at North Weald, England! They have regular engine run ups you can go to!

Beautiful!!!

You will miss me Maxi. 😭

Hi Darin, nice historic documentary, I used to fly AUB and BMH......now parked at Rand airport. Would you mind if I used some of your content/footage in new short clip we are puting together? Regards, Anton

No black people on that flight

75 years in 2023. Wonder where the old girl is now?? Fantastic video

𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓂

Memories