Military Air Transport Service
The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy's Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force's Air Transport Command (ATC) into a single joint command. It was inactivated and discontinued on 8 January 1966, superseded by the Air Force's Military Airlift Command (MAC) as a separate strategic airlift command, and it returned shore-based Navy cargo aircraft to Navy control as operational support airlift (OSA) aircraft.
A U.S. Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster, BuNo 128425, operating for the Military Air Transport Service in the 1950s.
Routes of the Eastern Transport Air Force, 1964
MATS Lockheed C-141A-10-LM Starlifter, AF Ser. No. 63-8090, in 1965 just after delivery to the 1501st Air Transport Wing at Travis AFB. Retired on 7 August 1996, Scrapped 29 July 2003.
Douglas C-133B-DL Cargomaster, AF Ser. No. 59-0529, of the 1501st Air Transport Wing over San Francisco Bay in 1960. This aircraft was retired in 1971 and was on display at New England Air Museum, Bradley, Connecticut (USA), but was destroyed by a tornado on 3 October 1979. Nose and other pieces now at the AMC Museum at Dover AFB, Delaware.
Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces.
Air Transport Command C-47 Skytrain flying over the Pyramids, 1944
C-46 Commando flying "The Hump" over the Himalayan Mountain Range from Burma to China, 1945
Image: Air Transport Command C 54 taking off
Major trunk air routes of AAF Ferrying Command, June 1942
