Special Edition, The Life and Death – and Life Again, of the C-54 Skymaster “Spirit of Freedom”
This is a special blog by guest writer Douglas E. Campbell
On 24 June 1948 the Soviet Union blocked off all road and rail travel to and from West Berlin, thus effectively cutting off the city from any outside supplies which were desperately needed for survival. Only two days later, on 26 June 1948, the first planes took off from bases in England and western Germany and headed for West Berlin. It was a daunting logistical task to provide food, clothing, water, medicine, and other necessities of life for the over 2 million fearful inhabitants of the city. For nearly a year, from 26 June 1948 to 12 May 1949, American and British planes flew into and over Germany around the clock. During the entire airlift, the U.S. and U.K. delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and supplies to West Berlin via more than 278,000 airdrops. American aircrews made more than 189,000 flights, totaling nearly 600,000 flying hours and exceeding 92 million miles.
The most popular type of plane which supported the Berlin Airlift was the Douglas C-54 Skymaster, best represented through the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation’s effort to save and fly a 1945 C-54E Skymaster, originally assigned USAAF serial number 44-9144. Manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Corps in March of 1945 and was then part of a transfer of 25 C-54E's to the United States Navy. The serial number “44-9144” was replaced by the Navy’s Bureau Number (BuNo) 90414 on 30 May 1945 and her designation was changed from C-54E to R5D-4.
The Douglas C-54 was a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States military in World War II, Korean War and the Vietnam War. The C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian airliner, the Douglas DC-4. Besides transport of cargo, the C-54 also carried presidents, prime ministers, and military staff. Dozens of variants of the C-54 were employed in a wide variety of non-combat roles such as air-sea rescue, scientific and military research, and missile tracking and recovery. This plane was the most used aircraft during the Berlin Airlift, and was nicknamed “The Workhorse of the Berlin Airlift,” hauling coal and food supplies to West Berlin. After the Korean War this model continued to be used for military and civilian uses by more than 30 countries. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president to have a military plane designated for his use when the Army Air Corps became concerned about the security of the president on commercial flights and used a C-54 Skymaster as his presidential plane, unofficially becoming the first “Air Force One.”
BuNo 90414 in 1945 as part of Naval Air Transport Service (NATS).
BuNo 90414 served with various units of the US Navy’s Air Transport Service. While serving in Naval Air Transport Squadron THREE (VR-3), she was assigned to support the Berlin Airlift, making transatlantic flights from the US to Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, in support of Navy Squadrons VR-6 and VR-8. In support of the year-long Berlin Airlift, VR-3 aircraft flew a total of 245 roundtrip flights, airlifting 875,000 pounds of cargo, transporting 2,150 passengers, and traveling over 1,152,000 miles over 7,840 flight hours.
After its role with the Navy, BuNo 90414 was transferred to the United States Marine Corps in roles such as cargo transports, personnel transport, and finally VIP Transport. Photo courtesy Aerial Visuals at https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/
At one time she was based in Los Alamitos before being transferred to Washington, DC. In 1975 she was reported as being with the USMC Headquarters Flight Section at Ryan Airfield, Tucson, Arizona.
Shortly afterwards she was moved down the street to the Boneyard – the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center (MASDC) – at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ, ready for the chopping block.
Photograph by Caz Caswell on 21 February 1980 courtesy Aerial Visuals at https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/
Shortly following her retirement and still in 1975, she was sold to AAAP Co, an aircraft broker, who registered it with the civilian “N” number N48163 and then re-registered it as N904DS. In February 1978, she went to Canada to work for Carl Millard of Millardair, where she was registered C-GQIB. She was named "The Sky Trader" and was used mostly to ferry auto parts between Toronto and Detroit for the next 12 years. During her time with Millardair C-GQIB was repainted into TWA livery colors for an unknown movie and then painted back into Millardair colors.
Photograph by Caz Caswell on 17 April 1985 courtesy Aerial Visuals at https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/
Photograph by Reinhard Zinabold in July 1985 at Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson Airport courtesy Aerial Visuals at https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/
After that it was sold in the early 1990's to serve as a cargo plane for 2 years or so with Z Air Transport.
Photographed by Paul J. Hooper at Pontiac, Michigan, on 3 September 1991 courtesy Aerial Visuals at https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/
On 15 December 1994 it was purchased by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation based out of Monmouth Executive Airport, Farmingdale, NJ, and used as a representative of those aircraft which flew in the Airlift. The Foundation turned the plane into a Flying Museum and Memorial to the Berlin Airlift.
In May 1998, "Spirit of Freedom" undertook a 70-day European Tour to mark the 50th Anniversary of "Operation Vittles", the Berlin Airlift. This tour included stops at Westover AFB, Mass., Goose Bay, Labrador, Prestwick, Scotland, Biggin Hill, England, Berlin-Templehof, Germany, Berlin-Schonefeld, Germany, Rhein-Main AB, Frankfurt, Germany, Wiesbaden Army Air Base, Wiesbaden, Germany, Duxford, England, Kemble, England, Coventry, England, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and Nancy, France. During this trip, "Spirit of Freedom" was honored by visits from German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
For 27 years, from 1993-2020, "Spirit of Freedom" could be seen at airshows and events throughout the US. The "Spirit of Freedom" was a living, breathing, flying exhibit commemorating the great Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. A genuine Navy Veteran of the Airlift, the "Spirit" housed a full-fledged museum exhibit about that pivotal event. Filled with artifacts, photographs, a computer animated tour guide and other Airlift related items, the "Spirit" spent 27 years traveling the world educating people on this subject.
Then on 13 April 2020 the aircraft sustained an originally estimated $300,000 in damage after it was tossed against a hangar when a tornado swept through Lowcounty Regional Airport in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Tim Chopp, owner of the plane and president of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, broke the sad news on the untimely death of the Skymaster. Mother Nature did what the Soviet Union could not do – stop the Skymaster from flying its mission. “To our loyal and dedicated support group: It is with a heavy heart we announce our Douglas C-54, the ‘Spirit of Freedom’ was severely damaged early in the morning of Monday April 13, 2020 by tornados that ravaged the Carolinas causing wide spread destruction and loss of life. Our Douglas C-54 was parked at the Walterboro, SC, airport on December 18, 2019 for the installation of a new Stratus Transponder to comply with the FAA mandate for transponders meeting the ADS-B requirements by January 1, 2020. Thanks to Swamp Fox Avionics at the Walterboro Airport, our C-54 is now in compliance. It is too early to assess the extent of the tornado damage, however, photographs reveal the leading edge of the right outerwing and the rear left center wing flap area received substantial damage. Due to the many restrictions now in place regarding the Covid-19 virus epidemic, it will take some time to reach a full evaluation. Our concerns and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones due to the tornado outbreak. A sincere thank you to everyone for your continued support over the years to the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation to help keep the Douglas C-54 and our Boeing C-97 flying on their missions of history, education, and remembrance about the great Berlin Airlift of 1948 and 1949.”
The full evaluation came in later and the real damage became apparent, swelling the original $300,000 damage estimate to nearly $2M. So the Skymaster just sat at Walterboro Airport for more than a year as an ugly reminder of the destructive force of nature. As repairs began at the airport, the plane was becoming an eyesore and one day the Airport Manager had had enough and demanded that one way or the other the “Spirit of Freedom” had to leave. It looked like the only place it was going was to the scrap yard.
Then a fortuitous phone call was made to Mark Doble, currently the owner and CEO of Aviator Brewing Company in Fuquay-Varina, NC. The person on the other end of the line had heard a rumor that Mark was looking for a plane that he could add to his upcoming 5-acre, 5,000 sq. ft. restaurant/bar he was building. A deal was struck, a donation made to the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, and the plane was his. What in the world was he thinking?
Saying that Mark Doble is a military brat would get many readers nodding the heads and saying to themselves “Yeah, I get that.” He grew up moving all over the USA, Korea and Europe, absorbing the different cultures and foods along the way. He was born in Bangor, Wales. He went to High School at Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT), a former name of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, a NATO military command in Brunssum, Netherlands. While in high school at age 16 he learned about brewing beer and later worked with his brother in a homebrew store he started in 1990 called the BrewShack on Waters Ave. in Tampa, FL.
Mark then went off to college and joined the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps, or AROTC. He was awarded his Undergraduate Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida in Tampa and his Graduate Degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech. At the time, military Reductions-in-Force, or RIFs, forced him into the Reserves as a “Weekend Warrior” rather than full-time active duty, so he resigned his commission.
In the corporate world he went off to work for Hewlett-Packard as an embedded software/hardware engineer for 15 years in Atlanta, GA, and back in Tampa. Then that military brat “itch” got to him and he just had to get back to moving around and doing different things. Taking calculated risks become second nature to you once you’ve experienced living all over the world. And so off he went.
With little cash, living off credit cards, he woke up his entrepreneurial spirit and went back to what he enjoyed doing while he was growing up – aviation and brewing beer. In 2003 he built his own homebuilt airplane which he still owns, along with a Cirrus SR22. He drove around the country chasing after anything discarded he could use to build a beer brewery. And everything went into his hangar at the Triple W Airport in Fuquay-Varina.
Mark started Aviator Brewing in 2008 in Fuquay Varina. It was an instant success. In 2009 he opened Aviator TapHouse, in 2011 he opened Aviator SmokeHouse, and in 2014 he opened Aviator BeerShop. Mark was awarded the 2017 Exporter of the Year for North Carolina and the Southeast by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Then in 2019 he opened Aviator Pizzeria.
Then COVID hit. Mark wasn’t even allowed to operate the brewery for some two years. So with pretty much everything shut down, and not wanting to get bored, he sat down and began designing his next big venture – a 5-acre ensemble of buildings in the middle of downtown Fuquay-Varina consisting of 3 restaurants, 5 bars, indoor/outdoor concert venues, coffee shop, beer shop, cigar lounge, a distillery and a hidden speakeasy. As a point of interest, the fuselage sections of that C-54 Skymaster as well as one of its four powerful R-2000 engines, will be used inside the Berlin Airlift C-54 Bar as a reminder that history must remain alive. The fuselage sections will be cleaned up, decorated, air-conditioned, and tables and chairs installed for patrons to enjoy their drinks inside the fuselage. The cockpit area will be refurbished to look like the original layout. Mark wants to include, through the use of displays and artifacts, the importance of the Berlin Airlift and the C-54's participation to save a city as well as a tribute to the Candy Bomber, Gail Halvorsen, who flew as a pilot crew member aboard this C-54E for over a 20-year period with the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation. It took some doing but Mark finally got all the approvals needed from the Town Managers and in this post-COVID world Mark is again off and running - and the Skymaster will continue to tell her stories about the Berlin Airlift.
Mark Doble, founder and CEO of Aviator Brewing Co., stands between the two fuselage sections of the C-54/R5D-4 sitting in the lot next to his Aviator Brewery and Bar at 209 Technology Place Lane, Fuquay-Varina, NC. The non-flyable plane had to be cut into sections for removal from the Walterboro Airport in SC and moved by flatbeds to their present location. Photograph courtesy of the author.
The C-54 “Spirit of Freedom” off the patio of the Aviator Brewery Pub at 209 Technology Park Lane in Fuquay-Varina, NC. It will be moved once more when it gets refurbished and settled into its new Aviator Brewing Company site in downtown Fuquay-Varina. Photograph courtesy of the author.
Help keep history alive by supporting the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation at PO BOX 782, Farmingdale, NJ 07727 (http://www.spiritoffreedom.org/)
If you’re in the Raleigh, NC, area, check out the C-54 and Aviator Brewery at 209 Technology Park Lane; Aviator Pizzeria and Beer Shop at 601 East Broad Street; Aviator TapHouse at 600 East Broad Street; and Aviator Smokehouse at 525 East Broad Street, all in Fuquay-Varina, NC. www.aviatorbrew.com