Aircraft Quiz No.123.

[Doug Robertson]

Name the United States of America's very first transport aircraft to use jet power. What exact date did it first fly? Needed is it's exact full designation.

[moxy]

Hello Doug

Just to clarify, do you mean a transport aircraft powered purely by jet propulsion or does it include those transport aircraft that employed JATO. I was thinking of the first of the two Lockheed Constitutions that took off with a number of JATO engines due to the model being underpowered.

Rob

[Doug Robertson]

Welcome Rob,

Nix on any JATO boost power. The aircraft I am thinking of had pure and only jet propulsion power.

Doug

[moxy]

I believe the following aeroplane fits the bill.

Chase XC-123A Avitruc, first flight 21st April 1951.

Cheers
Rob

[Doug Robertson]

First, I apologize for the delay in answering.

You got it absolutely correct. The experimental aircraft, an XC-123A was America's first jet transport, flying first on April 21, 1951. One Boeing B-47 jet pod containing two turbojet engines was carried under each wing. Testing revealed an on-wing leading edge location was better for tactical operations. So, production versions of the C-123 were piston-powered.

The US Air Force did use auxiliary jet engines on modified C-123s for Arctic operations. Further experiments in 1966 and 1967 showed the value of similar-placement of similar auxiliaries on C-123s in the Vietnam Conflict (our US congress never did declare war on Vietnam so officially it was the Korean Conflict). I served in US Naval Aviation at that time. (Am 88 years old now as of last month).