Cargomaster Inc, who own this example, were finding work increasingly hard to come by, especially as the aircraft was only allowed to fly within the Alaskan interior on behalf of the government. They had been providing this service to the state for over 30 years since the aircraft was retired from the USAF.
The aircraft has been donated to the Travis Museum, one of this aircraft's former bases, and the transaction includes the two examples that have been stored at Mojave, CA for many years. These airframes are likely to be scrapped after donating parts and possibly a cockpit for use in the museum.
The C-133 was the Air Force's first true strategic airlifter and was capable of hauling cargo that included fully assembled ICBMs, and was replaced in the early 1970s by the C-5 Galaxy.
The military markings were applied in Anchorage, but after the first test flight they had already started to peel off, probably due to the damp weather.
The ferry flight was done in two legs over two days... on 28th August from Anchorage, AK to McChord AFB, WA at an average speed of 260kts and taking 5 hours 23 minutes. And the final leg on 30th August to Travis AFB, CA a mere 2 hours and 23 minutes for an arrival during the Travis Air Expo Airshow. Even on these two legs the aircraft was put to use carrying a pair of C-133 Pratt & Whitney T34 engines - one bound for McChord and the other for Travis.
At the controls were pilots Mike Congdon and Tom Carlson, with Ken "Ski" Kozlowski performing both the flight engineer and crew chief tasks.
Fittingly the aircraft was given the traditional arc of water from a couple of fire tenders, although the strong winds on the day made the effect difficult.
