C-124A Globemaster II Transport Aircraft 1/144 Scale Plastic Model Kit Roden 306

During the WWII period, air transport proved its significance, as an important constituent of rapid and mobile movement of troops and vehicles to distant locations. In the post-war years, with the increase of tension in the world political situation and with the beginning of the Cold War, the role of transport aviation grew even more. The United States of America, aspiring to world leadership, had to be able to place its troops in all the various corners of the world. In 1947 the Douglas Aircraft Company radically reworked the design of the earlier C-74, building an entirely new machine. The fuselage of the airplane was considerably increased, and there appeared two clamshell doors and a hydraulic ramp in the nose, and an elevator in the rear fuselage. Each airplane was fitted with four powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engines rated at 3,800 hp. The plane's 23 meter cargo compartment could contain guns, trucks, tanks, and other military vehicles. It was the only aircraft at that time which could transport heavy tanks or engineering equipment such as bulldozers. As a troop transport, the airplane with its double-deck fuselage could carry over 200 fully-equipped soldiers. In case of necessity, the cargo compartment could be reconfigured as a flying hospital, and then the C-124 could transport 127 wounded escorted by medical staff.