Aircraft, Transport

Although they do not receive as much publicity as other combat-oriented aircraft, transport aircraft play an integral role in modern military operations by allowing nation-states to deploy large amounts of people and materiel to a theater of operations in a timely manner to complete a variety of missions. For the United States, these missions include transporting combat units, support forces, and their equipment into combat. Moreover, a major mission for U.S. transport aircraft is the transportation of humanitarian personnel and supplies into disaster areas around the world. To complete these missions, the Air Mobility Command of the U.S. Air Force maintains a diverse fleet of small, medium, and large transport aircraft to meet any contingency. This entry reviews the history of U.S. transport aircraft, including ...