C-119G with experimental paint scheme in 1974...

[Mark Allen M]

Kaiser-Fraser C-119G Flying Boxcar, 53-8087, photographed in April 1974 at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, reportedly with flat black experimental paint.
53-8087 (MSN 190) converted to C-119L. Preserved at 82nd Airborne War Memorial Museum, Fort Bragg, NC
https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDo ... rial=42879

[JohnB]

Back in the late '60s, there was at least one Special Ops (before that term was coined) Resupply Squadrons.
One was part of the Maryland Air Guard, they flew all black HU-16s. IIRC, they had red titles.
I saw one when I was a kid, you don't forget something like that.
Perhaps this was something similar?

[Snake45]

Kaiser-Frasier C-119? I live about a mile from where that airplane was built, and I've never heard anyone refer to a C-119 as a "Kaiser-Frasier."

[Mark Allen M]

https://www.ruudleeuw.com/c119_kaiser-f ... ystery.htm

[quemerford]

I think the info in that link is incorrect:

1. Kaiser-Frazer C-119F-KM Flying Boxcars with s/n 51-8098 thru 8168 = 71 aircraft
2. "Kaiser-Frazer" [sic] C-119G Flying Boxcars with s/n 53-8069 thru 8156 = 88 aircraft
3. record cards for the C-119Fs show them ordered against Contract AF-18481 (AF-14801 amended) as Kaiser C-119F and delivered from Willow Run
4. record cards for the C-119Gs show them ordered against Contract AF-26021 as Fairchild C-119G and delivered from Hagerstown.

So I'd say there's no mystery: different quantity, different designation, different AF Contract, different production line, different airframes.

Their later service careers show blocks of the '51' Kaisers operating into the 60s (as C-119G or J) at the same time as the '53' Fairchild C-119Gs sometimes with aircraft from both blocks operating with the same unit at the same time, so they weren't converted and given new serial numbers. In any case, if you convert a block of aircraft, you start with 'x' number and convert 'x' number, minus attritions. In the case above, we'd have more conversions than existed to start with!

I've no idea why the poster of that info got so convinced that there had been an accounting error, but in this case there wasn't.

[Mark Allen M]

But wait!! I found that link on the internet, so doesn’t that mean it has to be true?!! Lol
Seriously though, it’s the first time I’ve heard of Kaiser-Frazer.

[JohnB]

Mark
Look at the block number of the aircraft....
Kaiser-Frazer C-119F-KM Flying Boxcars with s/n 51-8098 thru 8168 = 71 aircraft

KM means Kaiser Manufacturing at Willow Run.

My "go to" book U.S. Military Aircraft since 1909 by Swanborough and Bowers, Putnum 1962,1972, 1987 (take your pick), shows by their serials that Kaiser built C, F and G-model '119s.
I'll be glad to post the complete serials.

So if the customer calls it a Kaiser, it's a Kaiser.
Not that it is a big deal, it's still a Fairchild C-119 in general conversation the same was a B-47 built by Lockheed is still a Boeing.
We just get into the habit of thinking license production was a WWII thing.

BTW:
Kaiser did more than build the wartime "Liberty Ships".
Kaiser bought Willys and built the Jeep line of civil and military vehicles until the early '70s. They also built non-Jeep military trucks.
Their Kaiser, and Kaiser-Frazier cars weren't a hit in the U.S., but the used the tooling to build cars in South America where they were very popular for many years.

[Snake45]

Huh. As my Old Dad used to say, "You learn something new every day if you're not careful."

In 1951, Henry J. Kaiser was awarded a contract to assemble additional C-119s at the Kaiser-Frazer automotive factory located in the former B-24 plant at Willow Run Airport in Belleville, Michigan. Initially, the Kaiser-built C-119F differed from the Fairchild aircraft by the use of Wright R-3350-85 Duplex Cyclone engines in place of Fairchild's use of the Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engine. Kaiser built 71 C-119s at Willow Run in 1952 and 1953 (AF Ser. No. 51-8098 to 51-8168) before converting the factory for a planned production of the Chase C-123 that never eventuated. The Kaiser sub-contract was frowned upon by Fairchild, and efforts were made through political channels to stop Kaiser's production, which may have proven successful. Following Kaiser's termination of C-119 production the contract for the C-123 was instead awarded to Fairchild. Most Kaiser-built aircraft were issued to the U.S. Marine Corps as R4Qs, with several later turned over to the South Vietnamese air force in the 1970s, a few others were later shipped to Belgium and Italy.[3]

[Richard W.]

53-8087 is special to me.

I was a young soldier at FT Bragg in the early 80s and when my brigade was on a post support cycle one year I drew guard duty at the Division Museum for a night. I was supposed to keep walking around the perimeter of the museum grounds where all the outside exhibits were parked, to keep drunk paratroopers off them I guess. LOL. Sat on the German 88, etc., and got a good close look at the Boxcar. Couldn't get into it unfortunately. Loved being alone with it, and the C-47. It was certainly the closest I ever came to almost enjoying a shift of guard duty.

I don't believe anyone was left in the 82nd at that time who'd jumped a C-119, at least I didn't meet any. I haven't been back to FT Bragg in 40 years, but I suppose all that extra time in the outdoors hasn't done the aircraft any good.