USN NWEF Douglas C-118 Liftmaster

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The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete with the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range commercial transport market.
The DC-6 was known as the C-118 Liftmaster in United States Air Force service and as the R6D in United States Navy service before 1962, after which all U.S. Navy variants were also designated as the C-118.

Albuquerque’s Kirtland Field was designated Kirtland Air Force Base in 1947, and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) operated on Sandia Base. When the United States Air Force established the Air Force Special Weapons Command at Kirtland Air Force Base in 1949, the United States Navy formed a detachment to investigate nuclear capabilities for naval aircraft and assist the AFSWP with naval equipment for demonstrations and training. The Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility (NWEF) operated through the Cold War investigating aircraft-weapon interfaces to provide United States Navy aircraft with nuclear weapons delivery capability.

In 1952 this detachment was designated the Naval Air Special Weapons Facility (NASWF) to conduct special weapons tests on the White Sands Missile Range and Tonopah Test Range in coordination with the United States Atomic Energy Commission. In March of 1961, the NASWF was re-designated the Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility (NWEF) and its mission was expanded to include safety studies on nuclear weapons. The aircraft used for NWEF testing were decorated with the NWEF thunderbird symbol and the NWEF detachment became known as the Rio Grande Navy by its sailors and civilians.
In 1992, with the consolidation of many naval activities and the drawdown of the U.S. defense budget, NWEF became part of the large, multisite Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake. In 1993 the NWEF was decommissioned and became the first nuclear-weapons-related facility in the Free World to be shut down. As NWEF closed, it transferred some of its remaining people and functions to the China Lake site.

The Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility at Kirtland Air Force Base turned in their very old C-54, which had flown in the Berlin Air Lift, for the Douglas C-118 Liftmaster Bu No. 131569 in February of 1973. The C-118 aircraft was used for general transport and liaison with other Navy facilities and for transportation of the NARDIV D-5 reserve personnel, crews and for other official missions.

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