504:. VR-11 became the largest squadron in the Navy with 700 pilots, 89 R5Ds and 10 R4Ds. NATS relied heavily on personnel with airline experience. At one time, VR-11 had 47 officers and 10 enlisted men that previously worked for 15 different airlines. One of VR-11's special missions was the delivery of whole blood to Pacific battle areas. Using special refrigerating units, the squadron was delivering 1000 pints a day by the invasion of
387:, deemed an aircraft was ready for delivery to the Navy, the aircraft was flown to NAS New York by the company's pilots. At New York, Navy personnel would check the aircraft and accept it. The Ferry Command would then fly the aircraft to where it was needed. NAS New York accepted over 20,000 aircraft during the course of the war – 25% of the Navy's total. The Air Ferry Command had a pilot training detachment at
193:. The 30-day-long school included 30 hours of flight instruction and 30 hours of inflight observation. Student capacity was 30 per month. The Navy relied heavily on the expertise of former Naval aviators who were working for the commercial airlines and had been recalled to the Navy because of the war.
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In 1948, the newly created
Defense Department, with economy and efficiency as its goal, combined the Air Force's Air Transport Command and NATS into the Military Air Transport Service or MATS. The Navy's contribution to MATS consisted of five squadrons and 58 aircraft. Although NATS was dissolved,
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Following the war, the size of NATS diminished. The major operations at Miami and Olathe were eventually shutdown and the operations at San
Francisco and Hawaii greatly reduced. The Naval Air Ferry Command was disbanded. By 1947, the NATS inventory had been reduced to only 116 aircraft. NATS
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In
December 1943, the Naval Air Ferry Command was established under NATS to take over the mission previously provided by the Aircraft Delivery Units. The mission of the Ferry Command was to ferry aircraft from the factories to the fleet. The Command's headquarters were placed at NAS New York
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as well as others. Finally VRF-3 was established at NAS San Pedro to accept aircraft from the West Coast manufacturers. VRS-1 was also formed to provide servicing and refueling on the ferry route from New York to the West Coast. Ferrying stops were located at various times at
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The next year was spent building up the NATS operation. In March 1943, NATS Wing West Coast and NATS Wing
Atlantic were formed. NATS received its first R5D(C-54) in the spring of 1943. Seaplane operations were conducted with the transport versions of the Consolidated
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with four R4D (C-47) aircraft, 27 officers, and 150 men. Initially, most of VR-1 flights were south in support of the
Atlantic antisubmarine effort. "VR" is the Navy acronym for transport squadron – "V” is for heavier than air and "R” is for transport.
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During 1944, NATS was operating at full steam. In June, two additional maintenance squadrons were formed, VR-12 at
Honolulu and VR-9 at Patuxent River. VR-13, an additional R4D squadron, was established and was eventually moved to
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Coronados. Pan Am initially operated out of its prewar terminal at
Treasure Island. By 1944, conflict with Navy surface ship traffic around Treasure Island caused Pan Am to move its operation south to Mills Field, now
521:(later R6V) Constitution. Design of the Constitution had begun in 1942 for the Navy and Pan American. The Constitution featured a double deck cabin with a passenger capacity of 168 and was powered by four
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R-4360s. Only two
Constitutions were built for the Navy since Pan Am had previously dropped out of the project. The R6V remains to this day as the largest aircraft operated by the Navy.
157:. Knox immediate approved the plan and the Naval Air Transport Service was created. This was a tall order since the largest transport operated by the Navy at this time were four
173:) from U.S. Army contracts. Initially, additional DC-3s were appropriated from the commercial airlines. On 9 March 1942, the first NATS squadron, VR-1, was commissioned at
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by the end of the year. All transport pilots were required to be good instrument pilots so all NATS-bound pilots were sent through the
Instrument Instructor School at
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and was eventually to become the largest VR squadron with over 700 pilots. In
November 1943, the Navy took delivery of the first of six Martin
324:, which was a part of the three airfield NAS Miami complex. VR-10 was also commissioned at Honolulu and was primarily a maintenance squadron.
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the Navy was allowed to retain several transport squadrons for its specific needs. The Navy contribution to MATS and its subsequent command,
316:, Miami and took over transport seaplane training from VR-1. The same month, VR-7, an R4D squadron was formed at NAS Miami to service the
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Melvin L. Shettle, Jr., 'United States Naval Air Stations of World WAR II – Volume One -Eastern States', 1995, Schaertel Publishing Co
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Prior to WW II, The Navy's air transport needs were provided by utility squadrons and aircraft assigned to commands. Five days after
571:
Melvin L. Shettle Jr., 'United States Naval Air Stations of World WAR II – Volume Two-Western States', 1997, Schaertel Publishing Co.
359:. On 30 November, the PB2M completed a 4,375-mile nonstop flight of 28 hours and 25 minutes, delivering 16,000 pounds of cargo from
347:. Several months later, VR-8 was established, and took over VR-1s transport seaplane operations. That September, VR-11 formed at
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NATS also contracted Pan American to operate seaplane transport service from San Francisco to Hawaii. Pan America utilized
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Nicolas M. Williams, 'Aircraft of the United States' Military Air Transport Service', 1999, Midland Publishing Limited
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153:, Capt. C. H. Schildhauer presented a detailed plan for a naval air transport program to the Secretary of the Navy,
309:. At the end of September 1944, Pan Am was operating four Boeing 314s and 15 PB2Y plus a few miscellaneous types.
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MATS: The Story of the Military Air Transport Service
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68:Engagements
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