The Long Right Arm profiles the Douglas C-133A aircraft and the Military Air Transport Service or MATS. The film addresses the issues of supply, and makes an argument (presumably to members of Congress who would have watched the film) that spending on MATS and a new generation of cargo aircraft makes a lot of sense. The flight of George-76 shown in the film, is a supply mission to France from Dover. The C-133 Cargomaster aircraft shown has the capability to fly all over the world.

The film also includes images of the Nike missile system at 5:00, the Pentagon. At 6:30, the film shows flights of B-52s from the Strategic Air Command flying as a nuclear deterrent. At 8:00, the film shows West Berlin and the Berlin Air Lift, including color footage of the fleets of cargo aircraft arriving in the besieged city. At 10:20, the Korean War is shown with aircraft being used to evacuate the wounded and maintain adequate supply for the troops. Lack of proper airlift preparedness hampered the war, according to the narrator. At 11:19, the C-124 is seen in service. The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, nicknamed “Old Shaky”, was a heavy-lift cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California.

At 12:59, Operation Air Drop is seen, an exercise to develop strike unit capabilities. At 15:00, arctic operations are seen with MATS operating in ice and snow conditions for the DEW Line construction. At 21:20, Thor IRBMs are seen being transported by MATS aircraft. Engine delivery of aircraft is seen at the 24:00 mark with F-4 Phantoms taking off.

At the 25:48 mark, the film makes a pitch to funders, for a new generation of cargo aircraft that would return dividends of security for the nation. Models of various construction are seen including Douglas’ XC-132, a proposed transport aircraft, based on the company’s C-124 Globemaster II. Design studies began in 1951 but the project was cancelled in 1957 by the USAF. No prototype was built and the project did not get past the mock-up stage.

The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was a large turboprop cargo aircraft built between 1956 and 1961 by the Douglas Aircraft Company for use with the United States Air Force. The C-133 was the USAF’s only production turboprop-powered strategic airlifter, entering service shortly after the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which was known as a tactical airlifter. It provided airlift services in a wide range of applications, being replaced by the C-5 Galaxy in the early 1970s.

The C-133 was for many years the only USAF aircraft capable of hauling very large or very heavy cargo. Despite the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II’s capabilities, there was much cargo that it could not carry because of its configuration with a cargo deck 13 ft (4 m) off the ground and its lower, though substantial, engine power. The C-133 continued in service after the formation of the USAFs Military Airlift Command on 1 January 1966.

By 1971, shortly before the introduction of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, the Cargomaster was obsolete as well as being worn out, and all were withdrawn from service in 1971. The C-133 was originally a 10,000-hour airframe that had been life-extended to 19,000 hours. Severe vibration had caused critical stress corrosion of the airframes to the point that the aircraft were beyond economical operation any longer. The Air Force managed to keep as many of the C-133 fleet in service as possible until the C-5 finally entered squadron service.

C-133s set a number of unofficial records, including records for military transport aircraft on trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes. Among the longest were non-stop flights from Tachikawa Airfield, Japan, to Travis Air Force Base, California (17:20 hours on 22 May 1959, 5,150 mi/8,288 km, 297.2 mph/478.3 km/h) and Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware in about 16 hours (4,850 mi/7,805 km 303.1 mph/487.8 km/h). The only FAI officially-sanctioned record was in December 1958, when C-133A 62008 lifted a payload of 117,900 lb (53,480 kg) to an altitude of 10,000 ft (3,048 m) at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.

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 Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force Air Transport Command (ATC) into a single joint command. It was inactivated and discontinued on 8 January 1966 when the Air Force and Navy set up separate strategic airlift commands.

In 1982, the World War II Air Transport Command (ATC) (1942-1948) and the Military Air Transport Service were consolidated with Military Airlift Command (MAC) (1966-1992).

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