, introduced in 1921, was the first cargo plane for military troops , the first purpose built cargo aircraft
Lockheed C-130 Hercules, the archetypal
military transport aircraft, over the
Atlantic Ocean in 2014 , the heaviest cargo aircraft 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 the
UK during the early 1920s, the need was recognized for a freighter aircraft to transport troops and material quickly to
pacify tribal revolts in the newly occupied territories of the
Middle East. The
Vickers Vernon, a development of the
Vickers Vimy Commercial, entered service with the
Royal Air Force as the first dedicated troop transport in 1921. In February 1923 this was put to use by the
RAF's
Iraq Command who flew nearly 500
Sikh troops from
Kingarban to
Kirkuk in the first ever strategic airlift of troops.
Vickers Victorias played an important part in the
Kabul Airlift of November 1928 – February 1929, when they evacuated diplomatic staff and their dependents together with members of the Afghan royal family endangered by a
civil war. The Victorias also helped to pioneer air routes for
Imperial Airways'
Handley Page HP.42 airliners. 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. This aircraft, like most of its era, used
tail-dragger landing gear which caused the aircraft to have a decided rearward tilt when landed. These aircraft introduced the
Trapoklappe, a powerful ramp/hydraulic lift with a personnel stairway centered between the vehicle trackway ramps, that raised the rear of the aircraft into the air and allowed easy loading. 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. It is during the
Berlin Airlift at the height of the
Cold War, when a massive mobilization of aircraft was undertaken by the
West to supply
West Berlin with food and supplies, in a virtual around the clock
air bridge, after the
Soviet Union closed and
blockaded Berlin's land links to the west. To rapidly supply the needed numbers of aircraft, many older types, especially the
Douglas C-47 Skytrain, were pressed into service. In operation it was found that it took as long or longer to unload these older designs as the much larger
tricycle landing gear Douglas C-54 Skymaster which was easier to move about in when landed. The C-47s were quickly removed from service, and from then on flat-decks were a requirement of all new cargo designs. 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 rear fuselage/upswept tail shaping to allow for a much larger rear loading ramp. 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, in the 21st century as the
Lockheed Martin C-130J, is still the yardstick against which newer
military transport aircraft designs are measured. Although larger, smaller and faster designs have been proposed for many years, the C-130 continues to improve at a rate that keeps it in production. "Strategic" cargo aircraft became an important class of their own starting with the
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy in the 1960s and a number of similar Soviet designs from the 70s and 80s, and culminating in the
Antonov An-225, the world's largest aircraft. These designs offer the ability to carry the heaviest loads, even
main battle tanks, at global ranges. The
Boeing 747 was originally designed to the same specification as the C-5, but later modified as a design that could be offered as either passenger or all-freight versions. The "bump" on the top of the fuselage allows the crew area to be clear of the
cargo containers sliding out of the front in the event of an accident. 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 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. Starting May 2020 Portuguese Hi Fly started charting cargo flights with an A380, carrying medical supplies from China to different parts of the world in the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. It allows almost of cargo between the three decks. In November 2020 Emirates started offering an A380 mini-freighter, which allows for 50 tons of cargo in the belly of the plane. == Importance ==