CREATION OF THE “CARGO PALLET”

Why was the cargo pallet developed? You must first understand how cargo was loaded on airplanes when air transport was first developed. Just after World War II the city of Berlin was cut off from the rest of Germany by the “Berlin Blockade” resulting in the Berlin Airlift. From this operation came air cargo lift. The task of providing this new service fell to the already constituted Air Transport Command (ATC). Now comes the way it used to be done. A flight set-up was received at the Transport Control Center (TCC). It was passed to maintenance and traffic.

If it was a cargo flight. It was Air Freight’s responsibility to pull enough cargo, within priority and time of receipt, to load the airplane. The set up that was received from TCC specified the time allowed to load and the allowable cabin load (ACL). It was Air Freight’s responsibility to load the aircraft within this time frame and as close to the ACL as possible. Once the set-up was received at Air Freight, the cargo was pulled as specified. It was loaded on F-2 dollies and transported to the aircraft, where it was loaded onto the aircraft. On a C-124, a loading crew was required on the ground and one in the aircraft. Any time over that specified by TCC constituted a delay.

At the time Thule Airbase was being constructed in Greenland. One Sunday TCC called Air Freight and said that 14 C-124s were being set-up for Thule and the time limit to load was 3 hours. Under normal conditions this was impossible. So the idea of the pallet came to mind. Cargo arrived at the air terminal by truck or rail, being transported on a government bill of lading. If it were to be airlifted, it was necessary to prepare an airway bill of lading. This bill was in 9 parts. Typists entered the date and time of arrival of cargo along with its priority. It was then inspected for any damage. Then it was assigned a priority and date of receipt, palletized on a warehouse pallet and stored in the cargo warehouse. The number 4 copy of the airway bill was then filed in the warehouse.

When a cargo set-up was received the cargo was selected by priority and date received. The cargo was then placed on an F-2 warehouse dolly and was tugged to the aircraft. If more than 1 dolly was required, as was the case most often, the dollies were hooked together in a train and towed to the aircraft. A loading crew was assigned to the aircraft. The loading crew laid the tie down pattern in the aircraft; leaving a 14 inch aisle down the right side for aircrew access and safety in C-54 and C-118 aircraft. A forklift operator selected pallets of cargo that were to be loaded on the C-124. Since weight and balance were most important, the loadmaster had to be very experienced.

As mentioned above, 14 C-124s were set-up on a Sunday with a 3 hour loading time. It was this happening that made the pallet idea strike home. The thought being that wouldn’t it be nice if the cargo was pre-palletized. This would eliminate a loading crew on the ground and speed loading. No need to lay the tie down, thereby reducing the size of the loading crew in the aircraft. Originally the pallet was envisioned to have retractable wheels so that it was all constituted as one unit. No need to have any other equipment.

A major problem was using aluminum rather than steel in the design. Richard Stillwell, a young lieutenant, a graduate Metallurgical Engineer, a Bethlehem Steel Co employee, at the time of his military call up, was asked if he could convert the pallet design from steel to aluminum. He did and the pallet design was submitted.

The Atlantic Division (ATLD) people liked the idea but said it was too costly to produce locally. Then an overseas assignment came along and the project was forgotten. Upon return 3 years later the (ATLD) people said the project had merit and a study contract was to be let. Since I was the originator of the idea I was appointed as Point of Contact (POC) for the contract. Mr. Sam La Mar was designated as the Douglas project engineer. I worked hand and glove with Mr. La Mar.

As the Project developed it was envisioned to load a pallet at the originating factory and transport it to the Aerial Port. A big draw back with this idea was the requirement for the pallet to fit in a standard army 6-by truck. This meant a reduction in size of the pallet and opened up the problem of finalizing the size of the pallet. This took many, many weeks. Next came the problem of ground handling equipment. Since the C-124 was the primary cargo aircraft of the time. Ground handling forklifts that were able to work under a C-124 without damaging the aircraft was a primary consideration.

Coupled with the pallet program was the idea of a mechanized air freight terminal. Travis AFB was selected as the site for the mechanized terminal while Dover AFB was selected as the service test site for the pallets. Later aircraft such as the C-133 and the C-130 resulted in changing the pallet final securing mechanism, but the idea of pallet loading never changed. So, today we have almost all military aircraft equipped with pallet capability as well as most all commercial aircraft.

From the memories of Lt Col Jack Sargeant/Scott RAO Fall 00 Newsletter.

 http://www.amf.org/RAO/Section9/ssec9.8.1.htm#A-37