Sorry I’m late to this thread but I thought I’d contribute what
I know about this aircraft since its a speciality subject for me.

The OFFICIAL name of the C-82 was Packet, this is after
the 18th & 19th century British “Packet Ships” that carried freight
to the Far East and the USA. The nickname of “Flying Boxcar” was
the UNOFFICIAL name tagged by the press / pilots etc. It was
in fact printed on the side of the XC-82 in some pics as was mentioned
earlier in this thread. The name refers to the cargo hold being similar
to a railroad boxcar.

When the C-119 came along the OFFICIAL name to Fairchild was still
Packet (the original prototype designation of the C-119 was in fact
the XC-82B). But the USAF decided there were enough changes to warrant
a new designation to C-119 and a new OFFICIAL name of Flying Boxcar.

The USMC kept Packet as the official name for their R4Q-1 / -2 aircraft.
Although a USMC C-119 Radio Op I spoke too said they were never called
that among crews etc. that he flew with.
Other military names known to these aircraft are Packplane (XC-120),
Skyvan (XC-119H), Shadow (AC-119G) and Stinger (AC-119K).

In civilian guise the C-82 was known by the marketing brand names
as Jet-Packet and Skytruck. Skytruck being used by
Elleston Trevor in his 1964 book “The Flight of the Phoenix”.
The company that converted them was Steward-Davis Inc. They
also did C-119 conversions branded as C-119 Jet-Pak and Stolmaster.
A lot of these were used in the US as fire-bombers etc., especially Hawkins & Powers
and Hemet valley.

224 C-82 Packets were built – type (N6887C) used in the 1965 version
of Flight of the Phoenix with James Stewart.
1185 C-119 Flying Boxcar / Packets were built – type (N15501) used in the
2004 version of Flight of the Phoenix with Dennis Quaid.

Kaiser-Frazer built 71 C-119F’s before contracts were cancelled, the remaining
88 were completed by Fairchild but retained their Kaiser msn’s. At the same
time Fairchild also picked up the Kaiser C-123 contract going on to build
over 300 of the C-123B Provider, improving the design from the outset.

6 complete C-82 Packets survive today with a few more fuselages around.

Cheers
Simon Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net

I believe the An-2 was a Polish built “Colt” registered in
Alaska as N87AN.
The DC-3 appears to be Skip Evan’s one that was also
seen in “Pearl Harbor” (2001) in the final return scene.

I won’t be seeing the film till this Saturday but I think there
might be a Lockheed PV-2 in some airport shots?
Can’t wait to se these Sabre’s………

S.Beck

The latest issue of Warbirds International Vol. 27 / No. 2
features an article on Mr. Tallichet and has four stills of the
Catalina ferry trip from S. America.

Simon Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net

Has anyone noticed this one:

“Those Magificent Men in their Flying machines” (1965)
when the train goes through the tunnel and destorys
the aircraft on top you can clearly see a NUCLEAR
power station in the background.

Simon

Here in Christchurch, New Zealand at the now closed
Wigram AFB which has become a suburb since 1995 theres:
Harvard Drive, Mustang Ave. and Corsair Drive among
others.

Simon Beck
New Zealand