Fairchild C-82 Packet#Surviving aircraft

Developed by Fairchild, the C-82 was intended as a heavy-lift cargo aircraft to succeed prewar civilian designs like the Curtiss C-46 Commando and Douglas C-47 Dakota using non-critical materials in its construction, primarily plywood and steel, so as not to compete with the production of combat aircraft. However, by early 1943 changes in specifications resulted in plans for an all-metal aircraft. The aircraft was designed for a number of roles, including cargo carrier, troop transport, parachute drop, medical evacuation, and glider towing. It featured a rear-loading ramp with wide doors and an empennage set 14 feet (4.3 m) off the ground that permitted trucks and trailers to back up to the doors without obstruction. The single prototype first flew on 10 September 1944. The aircraft were built at the Fairchild factory in Hagerstown, Maryland, with deliveries beginning in 1945 and ending in September 1948.

Problems surfaced almost immediately. The aircraft was found to be underpowered and its airframe inadequate for the heavy lifting it was intended to perform. As a result, the Air Force turned to Fairchild for a solution to the C-82's shortcomings. A redesign was quickly performed under the designation XC-82B, which would overcome all of the C-82A's initial problems.

File:Trans World Airlines Fairchild Packet Quackenbush.jpg Jet-Packet 1600, with Westinghouse J30-W turbojet booster engine in pod above upper fuselage (1959)]]

File:C-82 342-C-K-004082.jpg light tank being loaded into C-82]]

File:Fairchild C-82A PP-CEK Cruzeiro SDU 08.05.72 edited-2.jpg, Rio de Janeiro, in May 1972]]

File:Fairchild C-82A CC-CAE Taxpa Los Cer 22.04.72 edited-2.jpg

File:Paratroopers jump from a C-82.jpg

File:C-82.jpg

File:Fairchild C-82 Packet USAF.jpg

The C-82A was first flown in 1944, with its initial delivery not until June 1945; as a result, only a few entered service before the end of the war. In the end, only 223 C-82As would be built, a small number relative to other wartime production cargo aircraft. Most were used for cargo and troop transport, although a few were deployed for paratroop operations or towing military gliders. A redesign rectifying the aircraft's main deficiencies, made its debut in 1947. Its subsequent improved design would result in the 1949 rollout of the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar.

In 1946, the United States Postal Service explored the concept of flying post offices using highly modified C-82s, which would operate similarly to those on trains where mail would be sorted by clerks and put in bags and then transferred to trucks on landing.[https://books.google.com/books?id=7SADAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+science+May+1946+%22mail+trains%22&pg=PA130 "Tomorrow's Mail Trains"]. Popular Science, May 1946.

In 1948, a C-82 was fitted with track-gear landing gear, similar to the tracks on a crawler tractor, that allowed landings on unpaved, primitive runways.[https://books.google.com/books?id=QCgDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+science+1930&pg=PA79 Popular Science, August 1948, p. 79].

During the Berlin Blockade, five C-82 aircraft carried large disassembled earthmoving equipment into the city to enable the construction of Berlin Tegel Airport in the fall of 1948.

Though relatively unsuccessful, the C-82A is best considered as an early development stage of the much more successful C-119B Flying Boxcar. The C-82A saw limited production before being replaced by the Flying Boxcar.

The C-82 was retired from the United States Air Force inventory in 1954.[http://www.mcchordairmuseum.org/REV%20B%20MAM%20COLLECTION%20C-82%20BORDER.htm "Fairchild C-82A Packet"]. McChord Air Museum. Retrieved: 24 August 2014.

After the C-82A became surplus to United States Air Force requirements, small numbers were sold to civilian operators in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the United States and these were utilized for many years as rugged freight aircraft, capable of carrying bulky items of cargo. The last example was retired in the late 1980s.

;XC-82

:Prototype, one built.[http://aerofiles.com/_fair.html "American Airplanes: Fairchild."] Aerofiles.com, 11 December 2008. Retrieved: 11 October 2011.

;C-82A Packet

:Initial production version, 220 built.

;EC-82A

: 1948, fitted with Firestone-designed tracked landing gear. 13 aircraft allocated for conversion from C-82A, but only one completed.Beck, Simon. [http://www.c82packet.com/index.html "C-82 Packet."] c82packet.com. Retrieved: 31 December 2013.

;XC-82B

: 1947, fitted with 2650hp Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines as a precursor to the C-119 series. One converted from a C-82A.

;C-82N

: 1946, Production aircraft built by North American Aviation. Only three were completed, before the remaining 997 were cancelled.

;Steward-Davis Jet-Packet 1600

: 1956, civil conversion of Fairchild C-82A with {{Convert|1600|lbf|kN}} Westinghouse J30-W turbojet booster engine in pod above upper fuselage. At least three converted.[http://aerofiles.com/_st.html "American airplanes: St - Sz: Steward-Davies"]. Aerofiles.com. Retrieved 31 December 2013.

;Steward-Davis Jet-Packet 3200

:Conversion of Jet-Packet 1600 with two J30-W engines in above-fuselage pod. One converted in 1957.

;Jet-Packet 3400

: Jet-Packet with a {{Convert|3250|lbf|kN|abbr=on}} Westinghouse J34-WE-34, or {{Convert|3400|lbf|kN|abbr=on}} Westinghouse J34-WE-36 booster engine. At least four converted from 1962.

;Steward-Davis Jet-Packet II

: Airframe weight reduction program to increase cargo weights and increased power from Pratt & Whitney R-2800CB-16 engines. Application applied to at least three Jet-Packet 1600s or 3400s, including the TWA C-82A Ontos.

;Steward-Davis Skytruck I

: 1964, C-82A aircraft with {{Cvt|60000|lb}} takeoff weight, improved performance and a hot-air de-icing system, one converted. The Skytruck brand-name was allegedly the inspiration for Elleston Trevor's Skytruck in the 1964 novel, The Flight of the Phoenix.

;Steward-Davis Skypallet

: 1965 A C-82A redesign with the fuselage floor separating from the aircraft from nose to tail for large cargoes and the installation of an internal hoist. Only one aircraft was converted.

File:Operators of C82.jpg

;{{Flagu|Brazil}}

• Brazilian Air Force — the Primeiro Grupo de Transporte de Tropa (1st Troop Transport Group) operated C-82s of 1956-1969{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j5lBDwAAQBAJ&q=primeiro+grupo+de+transporte+de+tropa+C-82+planes&pg=PA284|title=Fairchild C-82 Packet: The Military and Civil History|isbn=9781476669755|last1=Beck|first1=Simon D.|date=15 November 2017|publisher=McFarland }}
• Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul

;{{Flagu|Chile}}

• Linea Aerea Taxpa Ltda

;{{HND}}

• Honduran Air Force

;{{Flagu|Mexico}}

• Compania Mexicana de Aviacion (CMA)

;{{Flagu|United States}}

• Interior Airways
• Trans World Airlines — Used for transporting replacement engines
• United States Army Air Forces

File:Fairchild C-82 Packet June 2016.jpg]]

File:FAIRCHILD C-82A PACKET.jpg]]

;Brazil

• 45-57783 – C-82A stored at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus. The aircraft is in poor condition.{{Cite web|title=Airframe Dossier - Fairchild C-82A Packet, s/n 45-57783 USAAF, c/n 10153, c/r PP-CEL|url=http://aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=81726|website=Aerial Visuals|publisher=AerialVisuals.ca|access-date=23 January 2017}}
• 48-0585 – C-82A stored at the Museu Aeroespacial at Campo dos Afonsos in Rio de Janeiro. It is an ex-Brazilian Air Force aircraft.{{Cite web|title=Airframe Dossier - FairchildC-82 Packet / C-119 Flying Boxcar, s/n 2202 FABr|url=http://aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=70370|website=Aerial Visuals|publisher=AerialVisuals.ca|access-date=23 January 2017}}

;United States

• 44-22991 – C-82A fuselage only in storage in the Walter Soplata Collection in Newbury Center, Ohio.{{Cite web|title=Airframe Dossier - FairchildC-82 Packet / C-119 Flying Boxcar, s/n 44-22991 USAAF, c/n 10035|url=http://aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=74186|website=Aerial Visuals|publisher=AerialVisuals.ca|access-date=23 January 2017}}
• 44-23006 – C-82A on static display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.{{Cite web|title=PACKET|url=http://www.pimaair.org/aircraft-by-name/item/fairchild-c-82a-packet|website=Pima Air & Space Museum|publisher=Pimaair.org|access-date=23 January 2017|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202005502/http://www.pimaair.org/aircraft-by-name/item/fairchild-c-82a-packet|url-status=dead}}
• 45-57814 – Steward-Davis Jet-Packet 3400 on static display at the Hagerstown Aviation Museum in Hagerstown, Maryland. This aircraft under the registration N9701F was used by TWA. The aircraft was flown to the airport on 15 October 2006, marking the world's last flight of a C-82.{{Cite web|title=1948 Fairchild C-82A Packet "Flying Boxcar"|url=http://www.hagerstownaviationmuseum.org/museumaircraft/1945fairchildc82.html|website=Hagerstown Aviation Museum|access-date=23 January 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113034227/http://www.hagerstownaviationmuseum.org/museumaircraft/1945fairchildc82.html|archive-date=13 November 2016}}
• 48-0574 – C-82A on static display at the McChord Air Museum at McChord Field in Tacoma, Washington.{{Cite web|title=FAIRCHILD C-82A PACKET|url=http://www.mcchordairmuseum.org/REV%20B%20MAM%20COLLECTION%20C-82%20BORDER.htm|website=McChord Air Museum|publisher=The McChord Air Museum Foundation|access-date=23 January 2017}}{{Cite web|title=Airframe Dossier& - Fairchild C-82A Packet, s/n 48-0574 USAAF, c/r N4753C|url=http://aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=16904|website=Aerial Visuals|publisher=AerialVisuals.ca|access-date=23 January 2017}}
• 48-0581 – C-82A on static display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.{{Cite web|title=Fairchild C-82 Packet|url=https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/195679/fairchild-c-82-packet/|website=National Museum of the US Air Force|access-date=23 January 2017|date=7 June 2016}} This airframe was also previously owned & operated by Northern Air Cargo under the Registration Number: N4752C{{Cite web|title=Fairchild C-82A N4752C|url=https://www.airhistory.net/photo/439811/N4752C|website=airhistory.net|access-date=28 January 2025|date=28 January 2025}}

{{-}}

File:Fairchild C-82A Packet 3-view silhouette drawing.png

{{Aircraft specs

|prime units?=imp

| ref=United States Military Aircraft since 1909Swanborough and Bowers 1963, p. 265. & American Military Transport Aircraft Since 1925{{sfn|Johnson|2013|p=142}}

| crew=three

| capacity=42 troops or 34 stretchers or {{cvt|18000|lb|t|2}} cargo

| length ft= 77

| length in= 1

| length m=

| span ft= 106

| span in=5+1/2

| span sigfig=4

| height ft= 26

| height in= 4

| height m=

| wing area sqft= 1,400

| wing area sigfig=4

| empty weight lb= 32,500

| empty weight kg=

| gross weight lb=50000

| gross weight note=Bridgman 1948, p. 259c

| max takeoff weight lb= 54,000

| max takeoff weight kg=

|fuel capacity={{convert|2600|USgal|impgal L|abbr=on}}

| eng1 name= Pratt & Whitney R-2800-85

| eng1 type=18-cylinder, two-row radial engines

| eng1 number=2

| eng1 hp= 2,100

| eng1 kw=

|prop blade number=3

|prop name=Hamilton Standard Hydromatic

|prop dia ft=15

|prop dia in=2

|prop dia note=

| max speed mph=248

| max speed kts=

| max speed kmh=

| max speed note=at {{convert|17500|ft|m|abbr=on}}

| cruise speed mph= 218

| cruise speed kts=

| cruise speed kmh=

| cruise speed note=at {{convert|10,000|ft|m|-1|abbr=on}}

|stall speed mph=85

|stall speed note=with full flaps

| range miles= 3,875

| range nmi=

| range km=

| ceiling ft= 21,200

| ceiling m=

| climb rate ftmin= 950

| climb rate ms=

| wing loading lb/sqft=

| wing loading kg/m2=

|power/mass=

| more performance= *Takeoff distance to 50 ft (15m): {{convert|1100|yd|ft m|abbr=on}}

• Landing distance from 50 ft (15 m): {{convert|625|yd|ft m|abbr=on}}

}}

File:Fairchild C-82A N53228 Film LGB 17.10.70.jpg, seen here in 1970]]

The C-82 is perhaps best known for its role in the 1964 novel, The Flight of the Phoenix, and Robert Aldrich's original 1965 film version. Based on the novel by Elleston Trevor, the story features a C-82A Packet operated by the fictional Arabco Oil Company. It crashes in the Libyan desert, and is rebuilt by the passengers and crew, using one tail boom, and is then flown to safety. Such an aircraft was made for the movie, the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1. It was certified airworthy by the Federal Aviation Administration. Paul Mantz, possibly the greatest Hollywood stunt pilot in history with 25,000 flight hours, was killed with the cameras rolling when he bounced the skids of the craft down too hard in a touch-and-go, buckling and breaking the fuselage behind the wing, sending the craft nose-down hard into the desert, tumbling it completely over at 90 mph. Mantz was killed instantly.{{Cite web|url=https://www.century-of-flight.net/hollywoods-stunt-pilots/|title=Hollywood's Stunt Pilots - A Short History of the Earliest Aerial Stuntmen|first=Rob|last=V|date=October 30, 2019}}

In 1953, the local minor league baseball team in Hagerstown, Maryland, was the Hagerstown Braves, so called because they were a minor league affiliate of the major league Milwaukee Braves. The Hagerstown team switched affiliation to the Washington Senators for the 1954 season. Instead of using the major league nickname, they chose the name Hagerstown Packets in tribute to the C-82.{{Cite news|title=Packets Selected as Nickname|newspaper=The Morning Herald|date=December 23, 1953|location=Hagerstown, Maryland}} The Hagerstown Packets played in the Piedmont League during the 1954 and 1955 seasons.{{Cite web|title=Hagerstown, Maryland Minor League History|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/team.cgi?city=Hagerstown&state=MD&country=US|access-date=November 24, 2014|work=Baseball-Reference.com}}

{{Aircontent|

| related=

• Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar
• Fairchild XC-120 Packplane

| similar aircraft=

• Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy
• Fairchild C-123 Provider
• Gotha Go 244
• Nord Noratlas

| lists=

| see also=

}}

;Notes

{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography

• Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1948. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.
• {{cite book |last=Johnson |first= E. R. |date=2013 |title=American Military Transport Aircraft Since 1925 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |isbn=978-0-7864-6269-8}}
• Lloyd, Alwyn T. Fairchild C-82 Packet and C-119 Flying Boxcar. Hinckley, UK: Aerofax, 2005. {{ISBN|1-85780-201-2}}
• Swanborough, F.G. and Peter M. Bowers. United States Military Aircraft since 1909. London: Putnam, first edition, 1963.

{{Commons category|Fairchild C-82 Packet}}

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=ht8DAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+mechanic+antitank+1941&pg=PA16 "Super Size Freighter Resembles P-38 Fighter", Popular Mechanics, March 1944; first illustration of C-82 released to public — bottom half of p. 16]
• [http://www.c82packet.com/civilhistory.html C-82 packet]

{{Fairchild Aircraft}}

{{North American Aviation aircraft}}

{{USAF transports}}

{{Authority control}}

Fairchild C-082 Packet

C-082

Category:Twin-boom aircraft

Category:High-wing aircraft

Category:Hagerstown, Maryland

Category:Aircraft first flown in 1944

Category:Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft

Category:Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear