Lodestar Load

Photo by Silas Stephen

The Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover AFB, Delaware, received a rare Lockheed C-60 Lodestar transport on 6 October 2014. It was delivered to the museum by a Dover-based C-5M Super Galaxy crew from the active-duty 436th Airlift Wing on a training flight. The Lodestar was transferred from the Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB, Georgia, as part of that museum’s downsizing plan. The entire fuselage of the C-60 with both engines and the inboard wing fit in the Super Galaxy’s cargo compartment. The US Army Air Forces purchased 361 C-60s during World War II. Roughly 100 former military (C-56/C-60/R5O) and commercial Lodestars were modified by several companies and fitted with custom interiors—including this one—after the war.