Skymaster roars to life

The chances of seeing a Douglas Skymaster fly in European skies have notable increased since the last weekend of March. It was then, at North Weald airfield, United Kingdom, that both outer engines of C-54Q N44914 came back to life, after almost two decades of inactivity.

The aircraft, owned by the Save the Skymaster project since 2017, will gradually be returned to airworthy condition. The restoration serves as a learning project for volunteers. Trained by Veterans and Engineering Graduates they will gather experience in avionics, corrosion repair, engine overhaul, fabric coverings, hydraulics and propellers.

The subject of the restoration was built as a USAAF C-54D (10630) with serial 42-72525. But soon it was delivered to the US Navy as R5D-3 (later converted into C-54Q) with BuNo 56498 which served the US Forces mainly in the Pacific until 1972. The aircraft then became a civilian propliner serving Biegert Aviation as N44914 until 2002.

In that year Aces High at North Weald acquired N44914 for the intended filming of a movie on the Berlin Airlift. For this purpose the aircraft was painted in bogus USAF colours with serial “56498” A second Skymaster, a civilian DC-4, N31356, painted as “USAF 44-42914” arrived at North Weald in September 2002.

Unfortunately the filming activities never took place and both Skymasters were destined to slowly deteriorate in the years that followed. In December 2015, the forward fuselage section of N31356 was salvaged and trucked to the Burtonwood airfield museum. The remainder was scrapped.

In 2017 the future of N44914 was secured with the founding of the Save the Skymaster project. A crowd funding activity was started to raise money for a restoration. When finished the aircraft will be a living tribute to all the Skymasters which served in the Second World War, the Korean War and during the Berlin Airlift.

Photos: Save the Skymaster and Gert Jan Mentink