Convair C - 131 Samaritan The Convair C - 131 Samaritan was an American military transport produced from 1954 to 1956 by Convair . It is the military version of the Convair CV - 240 . Design and development . The design began life in a production requirement by American Airlines for a pressurized airliner to replace the classic Douglas DC - 3 . Convair ' s original design had two engines and 40 seats , and thus it was designated the CV - 240 . The first CV - 240 flew on March 16 , 1947 , and production aircraft were first delivered to American on February 28 , 1948 . Seventy - five were delivered to American , with another fifty going to Western Airlines , Continental Airlines , Pan American Airways , KLM , Sabena , Swissair and Trans Australia Airlines . Operational history . The CV - 240 / 340 / 440 series was used by the United States Air Force ( USAF ) for medical evacuation and VIP transport and was designated as C - 131 Samaritan . The first model Samaritan , the C - 131A , was derived from the CV - 240 model , and was delivered to the USAF in 1954 . The earlier trainer model , designated the T - 29 , was also based on the Convair 240 and was used to instruct USAF navigator s for all USAF aircraft and those USN Naval Flight Officer s ( NFOs ) selected to fly land - based naval aircraft . First deliveries to the USAF were made in 1950 followed by large production quantities until early 1955 . The USAF and the USN operated T - 29s in separate units at separate locations until 1976 . In 1974 , the USAF T - 29s with the 323d Flying Training Wing ( 323 FTW ) at Mather AFB , California began to be replaced by the Boeing 737 - derived T - 43 . In 1975 , the Navy retired all of its T - 29s assigned to Training Squadron Twenty - Nine ( VT - 29 ) at NAS Corpus Christi , Texas , deactivated VT - 29 , and merged their advanced navigator training program for land - based NFOs with the Air Force ' s program at Mather AFB . A planned bomber training version of the T - 29 ( designated T - 32 ) was never built . The CV - 340 model was used for most C - 131Ds . In addition to T - 29 variants , the United States Navy used the Samaritan , initially designated as the R4Y until 1962 , at which point the naval aircraft were also redesignated as C - 131s . Nearly all of the C - 131s left the active USAF inventory in the late 1970s , but the U . S . Coast Guard operated the aircraft until 1983 , while the Air National Guard and U . S . Navy units operated additional C - 131 airframes , primarily as Operational Support Aircraft ( OSA ) for Air National Guard flying wings and as naval air station " station aircraft " until 1990 . The C - 131 was primarily replaced by the C - 9 Nightingale in Regular USAF service , with the Air National Guard replacing their OSA with C - 130 Hercules aircraft and the Navy with C - 12 Huron s . A Samaritan was the first aircraft used as a flying gunship testbed in mid - 1963 , in a program known as " Project Tailchaser " . A C - 131B ( AF Ser . No . 53 - 7820 ) was given a gunsight for the side window , but instead of guns it had cameras in the cargo area . Eventually the C - 131 was ferried to Eglin AFB in Florida and a General Electric SUU - 11A / A 7 . 62 mm Gatling - style Minigun was installed . Live ammunition was used and both over - water and over - land tests were successful . Accidents and incidents . On 17 December 1960 , a Samaritan crashed at Munich in what is the largest loss of life in an accident in the Bavarian capital . Shortly after takeoff one engine failed and the pilot tried to get back to Riem in heavy fog over Munich . Due to the limited visibility the aircraft struck the tip of St . Paul ' s church close to the Theresienwiese , and crashed onto a streetcar , killing all 20 people on board the plane , and 32 on the tram . On 30 April 1983 , a C - 131 assigned to NAS , Guantanamo Bay , Cuba crashed at Jacksonville NAS with the loss of 13 lives . Strategic air and Space Museum in Ashland , NE , located near Offutt AFB . AF Ser . No . 50 - 0190