v1.0.1 / 01 jan 02 / greg goebel / public domain
* The Curtiss "C-46 Commando" was a twin-engine cargolifter used primarily by the US Army Air Force (USAAF) in World War II, although it saw action with other services during the war, and in later conflicts. The C-46 remains largely forgotten, as it was overshadowed by the much more famous Douglas "C-47 Dakota" transport. This document provides a short history of the Commando.
* The Curtiss Commando began life as a design for a 36-seat commercial airliner with a pressurized cabin, designated the "CW-20", with development initiated by Curtiss in 1936 under an engineering team led by chief designer George W. Page. The CW-20 was intended to provide a larger, more capable competitor to the Douglas DC-3, which was then entering service.
The CW-20 featured a roomy "double bubble" fuselage, with a cross-section in the form of two circles segments mated together top and bottom. This configuration provided large internal volume and the structural strength to support pressurization. The junction between the small segment and the larger top segment was faired over to improve aerodynamics. The CW-20 also featured a low wing with twin radial engines, fully retractable "tailsitter" landing gear, and a twin-fin tail. The cockpit windscreen was flush with the fuselage contour, giving the aircraft a whale-like appearance.
The first "CW-20T" prototype was built at the Curtiss plant in Saint Louis, Missouri, and performed its initial flight on 26 March 1940, with Edmund T. "Eddie" Allen at the controls. Although Pratt & Whitney (P&W) Double Wasp two-row 18-cylinder radials were planned for the aircraft in production, the CW-20T was powered by two Wright R-2600 Cyclone engines with 1,600 horsepower each. Curtiss made a public announcement about their new airliner on 11 April 1940, giving it the name of "Substratosphere Transport", which was blessedly forgotten.
Flight tests quickly showed that the twin-fin tail left much to be desired, and it was replaced by a conventional tail arrangement with a single vertical tailplane. The modified aircraft, now known as the "CW-20A", was demonstrated to airlines, and there were some interest in the type.
However, in September 1940 the US Army Air Corps (USAAC), implementing an increasingly frantic program to prepare for war, ordered 200 modified "CW-20Bs" with the military designation of "C-46". Production began at the Curtiss plant in Buffalo, New York, with the first "Commando" delivered to the US Army Air Force (as the Air Corps had been renamed) on 12 July 1942. Many more would follow. With a war on, Curtiss focused on military production, and commercial production was out of the question for the duration.
Incidentally, the CW-20A prototype was pressed into service by the USAAF as the "C-55" on 20 June 1941. It only served with the military for three months, then being sold to the British Overseas Airway Corporation (BOAC), which operated it as the "Saint Louis". It was scrapped in October 1943.
* The initial C-46 was an interim production type, rolled off the manufacturing line while Curtiss changed the design to fully meet USAAF specifications. The 26th aircraft delivered was the first full-specification "C-46A" or "CW-20B".
Major changes in the C-46A relative to the CW-20A prototype included:
In addition to 40 troops, loads for the C-46A included 33 stretchers with
attendants, or 4,550 kilograms (10,000 pounds) of cargo. The Commando was
the largest twin-engine aircraft operated by the USAAF, and it fact its
wingspan was 1.2 meters (4 feet) longer than that of a Boeing B-17 Flying
Fortress. The Commando's fully loaded weight was almost twice as much as
that of a C-47.
CURTISS C-46 COMMANDO:
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spec metric english
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wingspan 32.92 meters 108 feet
length 23.27 meters 76 feet 4 inches
height 6.63 meters 21 feet 9 inches
empty weight 13,290 kilograms 29,300 pounds
max loaded weight 22,680 kilograms 50,000 pounds
max speed at altitude 378 KPH 235 MPH / 205 KT
service ceiling 6,700 meters 22,000 feet
range 2,900 kilometers 1,800 MI / 1,565 NMI
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Demand for the type was so great that the USAAF placed an order for 500 C-46A Commandos with Higgins Industries, famed for construction of landing craft and torpedo boats, but only two "C-46A-HI" Commandos were actually built by Higgins, being delivered in October 1944.
* The Commando initially went into service on the South Atlantic ferry route, and would also participate as a glider tug in the Rhine crossings in March 1945. However, due to its long range, it was primarily used in the Pacific and China-Burma-India (CBI) theaters. The type achieved particular distinction in the CBI, becoming the primary cargolifter for ferrying supplies supplies from India to China over "the Hump", the Himalaya Mountains, after the Japanese shut down the Burma Road in 1943. The Commando was preferred to the C-47 Dakota for this role as the C-46 had greater cargo capacity and better high-altitude performance.
Commandos of Colonel Edward H. Alexander's "India-China Wing" of the USAAF Air Transport Command flew from primitive airstrips in the Indian state of Assam, climbing with overload cargoes to clear ridges from 3.7 to 4.3 kilometers (12,000 to 14,000 feet) high, to land at Chunking and drop off their loads for USAAF General Claire Chennault's 14th Air Force and Nationalist Chinese forces.
The environment was very harsh, operating conditions were difficult, maintenance was troublesome, and Japanese fighters occasionally attacked the Commandos. During one attack, Captain Wally A. Gayda shoved a Browning Automatic Rifle out one of the forward cabin windows and shot down the attacker. The loss rate of the C-46 was unsurprisingly high given the circumstances, but crews had a certain affection for the aircraft, naming it "Dumbo", after the flying baby elephant in Walt Disney's 1941 animated movie.
* There were a number of Commando variants, but only two were produced in numbers besides the C-46A:
Minor variants included:
In addition, late in the war Curtiss put together a mockup of an updated commercial version of the aircraft, the "CW-20E", but although there was airline interest, the type was never produced.
Pictures of Commandos show some of them fitted with a radio-compass loop antenna behind the cockpit, which would be a valuable piece of gear for Asian operations over long distances and in monsoon weather, but it is unclear if this was associated with a particular variant, with specific factory blocks, or was a field fit. Total Commando production came to 3,140 aircraft.
* Although large numbers of surplus Commandos were sold to civilian operators in the rapid military wind-down after World War II, the C-46 remained in US military service in good quantities well into the 1950s. Some were adapted as "TC-46D" trainers for the US Air Force (USAF), which the USAAF became in 1947.
The outbreak of the Korean War caught the US unprepared and scrambling for resources. C-46s were pulled out of mothballs or even bought back from commercial operators, and put into round-the-clock use with the USAF Combat Cargo Command hauling supplies from Japan to Korea, as well as participating in paratrooper drops.
Commandos were still in US military service in the 1960s, and were used by the USAF 1st Air Commando Group for jungle supply drops and deliveries during the early part of the Vietnam War. The last Commandos were retired from USAF service in 1968.
Civilian Commandos were put to plenty of good use, generally as air freighters, though some were converted to an airliner configuration with proper passenger accommodations. Even as late as 1980, 300 or more Commandos were still operating.
Only a few dozen are still flying now. In the United States, two C-46Fs have been obtained by the Confederate Air Force (CAF) and make appearances at airshows. One is painted silver with USAAF markings and is named "China Doll", though the CAF earlier flew it in Nationalist Chinese markings as "Humpty Dumpty". The other is painted camouflage green on top and light blue on the bottom and is named "Tinker Bell".
* While the USAAF was awarding contracts to Curtiss to bring the C-46 Commando into operation, the service was hedging their bets by ordering a second transport from Curtiss, the "CW-27" or "C-76 Caravan". The Caravan was to be made as much as possible of wood in case supplies of light alloys dried up.
The USAAF placed an order for 11 "YC-76" pre-production aircraft in 1941,
with the first performing its initial flight on 1 January 1943. The Caravan
was smaller than the Commando and of different configuration, with a
shoulder-mounted wing, a stepped-up cockpit, and retractable tricycle
landing gear. It was powered by twin P&W R-1830-92 Twin Wasp radials with
1,200 horsepower each, and could carry 23 people, including the crew.
CURTISS C-76 CARAVAN:
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spec metric english
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wingspan 32.97 meters 108 feet 2 inches
length 20.83 meters 68 feet 4 inches
height 8.31 meters 27 feet 3 inches
empty weight 8,300 kilograms 18,300 pounds
loaded weight 12,700 kilograms 28,000 pounds
max speed at altitude 310 KPH 192 MPH / 170 KT
service ceiling 6,900 meters 22,600 feet
range 1,210 kilometers 750 MI / 650 NMI
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* The C-46 remains a somewhat obscure aircraft, and information on it is both scarce and somewhat contradictory. Some sources hint that it had a bad reputation, particularly for reliability, and that wouldn't have been too surprising given that Curtiss products were not exactly at the top of the class of American aircraft used in World War II.
However, the long service history seems to hint that the aircraft was regarded as both capable and satisfactory, and one pilot who flew it during the Korean War, Lieutenant Spencer Grant, praised its reliability and capability highly, concluding: "In my opinion, the C-47 always got top billing, but the C-46 was twice the aircraft."
* Sources include:
Various small items were picked up on the web and in magazines as well, but individually amounted to a sentence or two and haven't been listed.
* Revision history:
v1.0 / 01 aug 01 / gvg
v1.0.1 / 01 jan 02 / gvg / minor cosmetic update.