{"product_id":"navigating-the-c-124-globemaster-in-the-cockpit-of-americas-first-strategic-heavy-lift-aircraft-9781476677637","title":"Navigating the C-124 Globemaster: In the Cockpit of America's First Strategic Heavy-Lift Aircraft","description":"\u003cp\u003e The C-124 Globemaster--a U.S. military heavy-lift transport in service 1950 through 1974--barreling down a runway was an awesome sight. The aircraft's four 3800 hp piston engines (the largest ever mass-produced), mounted on its 174-foot wingspan, could carry a 69,000-pound payload of tanks, artillery or other cargo, or 200 fully equipped troops, at more than 300 mph.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The flight crew, perched three stories above the landing gears in an unpressurized cockpit, relied, like Magellan, on celestial fixes to navigate over oceans. With a world-wide mission delivering troops and materials to such destinations as the Congo, Vietnam, Thule, Greenland and Antarctica, the Globemaster lived up to its name and was foundational to what \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e magazine publisher Henry Luce termed the \"American Century.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Drawing on archives, Air Force bases, libraries and accident sites, and his own recollections as a navigator, the author details Cold War confrontations and consequent strategies that emerged after Douglas Aircraft Company delivered the first C-124A to the Military Air Transport Service in 1949.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBilly D. Higgins\u003c\/b\u003e teaches history at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"McFarland \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50337987199250,"sku":"9781476677637","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f18dbc14-3239-4a82-bf3a-68207147da22.jpg?v=1727973830","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/navigating-the-c-124-globemaster-in-the-cockpit-of-americas-first-strategic-heavy-lift-aircraft-9781476677637","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}