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Aircraft were put to use carrying cargo in the form of Air Mail as early as 1911. Although the earliest aircraft were not designed primarily as cargo carriers, by the mid 1920's airplane manufacturers were designing and building dedicated cargo aircraft. The earliest "true" cargo aircraft is arguably the WWII German design, the Arado Ar 232 . The Ar 232 was intended to supplant the earlier Junkers Ju 52 freighter conversions, but only small numbers were built. Most other forces used freighters in the cargo role as well, most notably the Douglas DC-3 , which served with practically every allied nation at some point. In the immediate post-war era a number of new custom-built cargo aircraft were introduced, often including some "experimental" features. For instance, the US's C-82 Packet featured a removable cargo area, while the C-123 Provider introduced the now-common upswept tail. But it was the introduction of the Turboprop that really allowed the class to mature, and even one of its earliest examples, the C-130 Hercules , is still the yardstick against which newer designs are measured. EARLY AIRMAIL AIRCRAFT CIVILIAN CARGO AIRCRAFT
MILITARY CARGO AIRCRAFT
EXPERIMENTAL CARGO AIRCRAFT
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