Navigating the C-124 Globemaster: In the Cockpit of America's First Strategic Heavy-Lift Aircraft

The C-124 Globemaster--a U.S. military heavy-lift transport in service 1950 through 1974--barreling down a runway was an awesome sight. The aircraft's four 3800 hp piston engines (the largest ever mass-produced), mounted on its 174-foot wingspan, could carry a 69,000-pound payload of tanks, artillery or other cargo, or 200 fully equipped troops, at more than 300 mph.

The flight crew, perched three stories above the landing gears in an unpressurized cockpit, relied, like Magellan, on celest...