World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe C-46 Commando transports were lovingly nicknamed "the Whales" by their United States Army Air Force crew and were best known for flying "the Hump" over the Himalayas to deliver supplies into China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. When they first flew on 26 Mar 1940, they were actually of a commercial transport design made for 36 passengers. However, by late 1941, the USAAF realized their cargo capacity and ordered 46 of them. These unpressurized transports had the largest cargo capacity of all Allied transports during WW2. Together with other models of transports, the Commandos delivered 45,000 tons of cargo per month to China between 1942 and 1945. These transports remain in use well after the war; between 1993 and 1995 they were still being used to deliver humanitarian supplies to Somalia.

SPECIFICATIONS

C-46

Machinery	Two Pratt and Whitney R-2800-51 Twin Wasp 18-cylinder air-cooled radial engines rated at 2,000hp each
Crew	4
Span	32.91 m
Length	23.27 m
Height	6.62 m
Wing Area	126.30 m²
Weight, Empty	13,608 kg
Weight, Maximum	20,412 kg
Speed, Maximum	435 km/h
Speed, Cruising	278 km/h
Rate of Climb	6.60 m/s
Service Ceiling	7,470 m
Range, Normal	5,069 km

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