FLYING BOXCAR Fairchild's new Freighter by George Wales One of the most gigantic cargo planes ever built is the PACKET which has an airfoil fuselage. The cargo compartment has straight sides, a level floor and a flat ceiling, with two big doors at the rear of the fuselage. Upon opening these doors which have a 14 ft. clearance, a large trailer truck can be backed underneath the tail in order to facilitate handling of cargo. The PACKET is designated the C82, and has been provided with unique facilities for sorting and storing mail in flight. Air mail service will be altered completely just as the railroad mailcar made obsolete the pony express. As much as seven tons of mail can be carried by this new innovation which will undoubtedly decrease the present price of sending air mail to all parts of the world. Such postal equipment as a sorting table, letter rack, chute, bag racks, and locked drawers for registered mail are designed into the C82, all of which are more compact and efficient than those generally used today. Since the PACKET would serve in long distance freight and air mail hauls, the helicopter could supplement the feasibility of this type of service by collecting mail for certain designated cities and delivering it efficiently to the station where the mail would go out by a postman. This would provide the shuttle service which is very much needed. Large cities could have helicopter roof landing areas which in turn would provide the much needed shuttle service from cargo plane to the designated city. Another development made possible by the PACKET would be air parcel post, a subject under discussion for some time, and this cargo plane would be ideally suited to this type of express. Under commercial operations the cost of each ton mile would be seven cents for trips up to 500 miles; 1000 mile flights with more than 5 tons payload would cost 8 1/4 cents per ton mile. These figures represent direct operating costs and do not include overhead and indirect costs. In comparison with a railroad boxcar, the PACKET can hold 93 per cent of the cubic capacity, and the cargo compartment resembles the interior of a freight car and has been nicknamed "the flying boxcar." The PACKET has a maximum range of 4000 miles; the maximum payload for 500 miles is 18,000 lbs., for 1000 miles, 15,500 lbs., and for 1500 miles, 13,000 lbs. It has a service ceiling of 25,000 ft. on both engines, and in the event of one or the other engines failing to operate, a ceiling of 8000 ft. can be maintained on one engine. Gross weight of the plane is 42,000 lbs. It is capable of taking off in 800 ft., has a cruising speed of 200 mph at 10,000 ft. altitude from sea level. Another main feature is a "hot-wing" anti-icing system which can function on one or both engines. The tail group is heated in the same way by hot air ducts. This C82 is the first airplane to enter production with this type of anti-icing system. It can be converted to a hospital ship in less than 20 minutes, and would be able to carry 34 litters. Trucks or automobiles can be driven into the fuselage of this huge plane for delivery anywhere. This amazing cargo plane will revolutionize transportation and will bring about the greatest amount of imports and exports from foreign lands so inexpensively that they will be within everyone's budget. Trailer truck backed into the large door opening under the tail surfaces. Note how large truck is dwarfed in comparison to size of plane. The PACKET sorting room for handling mail en route to destination.