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Cargo aircraft

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Aircraft were put to use carrying cargo in the form of "air mail" as early as 1911. Although the earliest aircraft were not designed primarily as cargo carriers, by the mid-1920s aircraft manufacturers were designing and building dedicated cargo aircraft. In Britain in the early 1920s, the need was recognized for a freighter aircraft to transport troops and materiel quickly to pacify tribal revolts in the newly occupied territories of the Middle East.

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Aircraft were put to use carrying cargo in the form of "air mail" as early as 1911. Although the earliest aircraft were not designed primarily as cargo carriers, by the mid-1920s aircraft manufacturers were designing and building dedicated cargo aircraft. In Britain in the early 1920s, the need was recognized for a freighter aircraft to transport troops and materiel quickly to pacify tribal revolts in the newly occupied territories of the Middle East. The Vickers Vernon, a development of the Vickers Vimy Commercial which was a passenger variant of the famous Vickers Vimy bomber therefore entered service with the Royal Air Force as the first dedicated troop transport in 1921. In February 1923 this was put to use when Vernons of Nos. 45 and 70 Squadrons of the RAF's Iraq Command flew nearly 500 Sikh troops from Kingarban to Kirkuk in the first ever strategic airlift of troops. This operation conducted over a short range; it was not until 1929 that the RAF conducted a long-range non-combat air evacuation of British diplomatic staff from Afghanistan to India during the Kabul Airlift. Vernons were replaced by Vickers Victorias from 1927 with 70 Squadron in Iraq and 216 Squadron in Egypt that year. Eight Victorias of 70 Squadron played an important part in the Kabul Airlift of November 1928–February 1929, when in severe winter conditions, RAF aircraft evacuated diplomatic staff and their dependents together with members of the Afghan royal family endangered by a civil war. Victorias were used to ferry troops to potential trouble spots including both in Iraq and elsewhere, flying reinforcements to Palestine in 1929 and Jordan in 1930 and from Egypt to Cyprus in 1931. The Victorias of the two operational squadrons also made a number of long range training flights, such as return trips from Cairo to Aden in 1931, and helped to pioneer air routes for Imperial Airways' Handley Page HP.42 airliners. The Central Flying School converted one Victoria to be used as a blind flying, fitting it with two sets of controls and instruments in a blanked off cabin. The Victoria continued in service until 1935, although many were converted into Valentias, which remained in use until well into the Second World War. The World War II German design, the Arado Ar 232 was the first purpose built cargo aircraft. The Ar 232 was intended to supplant the earlier Junkers Ju 52 freighter conversions, but only a few were built. Most other forces used freighter versions of airliners in the cargo role as well, most notably the C-47 Skytrain version of the Douglas DC-3, which served with practically every Allied nation. One important innovation for future cargo aircraft design was introduced in 1939, with the fifth and sixth prototypes of the Junkers Ju 90 four-engined military transport aircraft, with the earliest known example of a rear loading ramp. The conventional landing gear-equipped Ju 90 design pioneered the so-called Trapoklappe rear loading ramp to raise the fuselage to a level attitude as it deployed from underneath the rear fuselage, as it was powerful enough to do so, and a similar rear loading ramp even appeared in a somewhat different form on the nosewheel gear-equipped, late WW II era American Budd RB-1 Conestoga twin-engined cargo aircraft. Postwar Europe also served to play a major role in the development of the modern air cargo and air freight industry during what became known as the "Cold War." It is during the Berlin Airlift at the height of this "Cold War," when a massive mobilization of aircraft was undertaken by the "free world," to supply West Berlin residents with food and supplies, in a virtual around the clock air bridge, after the Soviet Union closed and blockaded Berlin's borders, and land links to the west. In the years following the war era a number of new custom-built cargo aircraft were introduced, often including some "experimental" features. For instance, the US's C-82 Packet featured a removable cargo area, while the C-123 Provider introduced the now-common upswept tail with - for the first time in combination, following the Budd RB-1's 1944 introduction of them together on an American cargo aircraft design - a drop-down rear cargo ramp, originally pioneered as the aforementioned Trapoklappe device on the German Ju 90 V5 and V6 prototypes. But it was the introduction of the turboprop that allowed the class to mature, and even one of its earliest examples, the C-130 Hercules, is still the yardstick against which newer military transport aircraft designs are measured. When the Airbus A380 was announced, the maker originally accepted orders for the freighter version A380F, offering the second largest payload capacity of any cargo aircraft, exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. An aerospace consultant has estimated that the A380F would have 7% better payload and better range than the 747-8F, but also higher trip costs. However, as of February 2013, production has not started, and firm availability dates have not been announced.

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