For Sale

In the glare of floodlights, a big four-motored C-54 dropped down onto Berlin's Tempelhof field, turned off the runway and swung around in the wake of the yellow jeep with the big red-lighted sign: "Follow me." At the unloading stand, its crew climbed down and workmen began unloading its cargo of coal. The Berlin airlift had ended.

Operating day & night for more than 15 months, in fair weather and foul, U.S; and British pilots had flown 277,264 trips, shuttled 2,343,301 1/2 tons of fuel and food into the old German capital. The airlift had taken the lives of 31 U.S. airmen, 39 British and seven German civilians. By the time it finally shut down last week most of the original airmen had long since been transferred home, crammed with the invaluable lessons of the largest air freight operation in history.

Berlin's Mayor Ernst Reuter, a brass band and swarms of functionaries were on hand to note the occasion. Said Reuter warmly: "It wove a bond of cooperation and of sentiment that marked the beginning of a different era." A more characteristically American epitaph was a placard bearing the lettered notice:

FOR SALE: One slightly used airline, one well-equipped airfield. Present owners going out of business.

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