The Hump Airlift

The Hump was the first sustained, large-scale air supply line, proving that aircraft could replace a land route for years at a time. It delivered roughly 650,000 tons to China, with monthly tonnage rising from 2,800 tons in February 1943 to 71,000 tons in July 1945 as the Air Transport Command added aircraft, crews, and tighter scheduling. The cost was high, with hundreds of aircraft lost on dangerous mountain routes. Its methods for scheduling, maintenance, and throughput carried into later airlifts and into the hub operations that air freight networks still run.

• ThroughputWork completed per hour or per day
• Lead TimeTime from purchase order to sellable stock

• First Air Cargo Flight1910 · A Wright plane flies silk from Dayton to Columbus
• U.S. Air Mail Service1918 · The first scheduled airmail route opens in the US
• Red Ball Express1944 · Army truck convoys supply the advance across France

• Lend-Lease Act1941 · 1941 law supplying Allied nations in World War II

1. The Hump: Lifeline to China nationalmuseum.af.mil
2. The Hump en.wikipedia.org