Raisin Bombers
Candy Bomber ( known in the U.S. as Candy bomber or raisin bomber ) is the colloquial name for the Allied aircraft at the time of the Berlin airlift that supplied West Berlin with food and other important items. This included also very much like fuel briquettes.
History
The name refers to the voluntary aid packages before landing and before the actual distribution threw the American aircrews to small home-made parachutes out of the plane to make the waiting children happy. The discarded packet contained mostly chocolate and chewing gum and probably raisins.
This idea is now attributed to the pilot Gail Halvorsen. He began to chocolate bars, he got sent by his relatives from America to bind to tissues and throw them before landing on Berlin. Once the media learned of the secret airdrops, the action soon attracted wide circles and collected the entire Air Force pilot and throughout the Americas candy and chewing gum, to help ensure that the Operation Little Vittles ( less provisions ).
In remembrance of today's epithet is based on all planes of the Berlin Airlift, although historically not all aircraft at the discharge of sweets were involved. However, the most common was the four-engine Douglas C -54 Skymaster of Americans.
At the airlift participated pilots and aircraft from several nations, the different targets in Berlin anflogen with all sorts of aircraft types, including landings on the Havel in Kladow with British flying boats. Arrival routes to the former Tempelhof Airport and Tegel Airport, built during the blockade, however, resulted in over densely populated city area, home to many children gathered after school to wait for the Candy Bomber.
Historical Aircraft
From the time of the airlift various individual aircraft have been preserved. In addition to the many years erected on the site of the Berlin Tempelhof Airport C-54 exist as airworthy preserved specimens, the Douglas C-47 Skytrain candy bomber by Air Service Berlin, with the 2010 rides were offered through Berlin to the accident and the Douglas C -54 Spirit of Freedom, which is mainly seen in the U.S. regularly as a flying museum at airshows.
On 19 June 2010, the Douglas C -47 Skytrain candy bomber of the Air Service Berlin crashed - According to the airline, the last airworthy plane of its type in Germany and historical aircraft in the airlift - during an emergency landing because of a crankshaft breaking on the expansion area of the airport in Schönefeld. The machine was badly damaged and there were seven minor injuries. The machine is to be refurbished airworthy and used again in 2014 for sightseeing flights to the plans of the operator. These parts of the crashed machine to be joined with another, newly acquired in mid-2013, aircraft.