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Berlin Airlift Set Standard For Aid

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

Few of the thousands of visitors to this year's AirFest at MacDill Air Force Base probably knew the history behind the C-54 transport plane flown in for the occasion. Along with the C-47s, it played an important role in the largest humanitarian campaign the world had ever seen: The Berlin Airlift.

Sixty years ago today, the first U.S. Air Force plane landed at the Tempelhof airport in what was then West Berlin. The United States and its allies built an "air bridge" from the West after the Soviet Union blockaded ground traffic to the western side of the still-war-torn German city. This relief effort is still considered the first battle of the Cold War, which unofficially came to an end 40 years later with the demolition of the Berlin Wall.

Americans flew the propeller-driven C-47s and C-54s, which had cargo bays the size of a semi-trailer, though they could carry only a quarter of the load. They are dwarfed by today's jet transports, which can carry 15 times more cargo.

Millions of tons of supplies were delivered by 280,000 flights landing every three minutes from June 26, 1948, until May 12, 1949.

The triumph of the Berlin Airlift must be measured in more than tonnage. The airlifters conducted the unprecedented operation without modern-day communications. Many of the procedures developed by those brave pilots helped create our modern air-traffic control system.

Air Force airlifts still take place today in response to natural disasters like the recent earthquakes in China and Pakistan, and the cyclone that hit Myanmar. It's now built into the service, which became a separate branch of the military nine months before the Berlin Airlift began.

If the airlifts seem second nature and go mostly unnoticed, it's because they've had 60 years of practice.

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