Editing Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (section)

===Civilian use===
[[File:Milestones-c119-N13745-070919-01-16.jpg|thumb|C-119C shown in Hemet Valley Flying Service livery as Tanker 82 before being retired; now at the Milestones of Flight Museum in Lancaster California. (note the [[Nacelle|jet pod]] above the fuselage)]]
[[File:N8093 C-119G MD4.jpg|thumb|C-119G instrument panel]]

A number of aircraft were acquired by companies that were contracted by federal agencies, including the [[United States Forest Service]] and the [[Bureau of Land Management]] to provide [[Aerial firefighting#Airtankers|airtanker]]s for fighting [[wildfire]]s. Others were used in civilian cargo service. After a series of crashes, the age and safety of the aircraft being used as airtankers became a serious concern, and the U.S. C-119 airtanker fleet was permanently grounded in 1987. Eventually, many of these aircraft were provided to museums across the U.S. in a complicated – and ultimately illegal – scheme where stored USAF [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules]] transports and Navy [[Lockheed P-3 Orion]] anti-submarine patrol aircraft were provided to the contractors in exchange for the C-119s.<ref name=9thappeals>[http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=9th&navby=case&no=9810173 "United States v. Fuchs"] ''U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Appeal 9810173, filed July 6, 2000.'' Retrieved: 28 June 2011.</ref> (See [[U.S. Forest Service airtanker scandal]].) After the end of the airtanker days, many C-119s flew in Alaska for Northern Pacific Transport, Gifford Aviation, Stebbins & Ambler Air transport, and Delta Associates, being used for public service contracts, such as hauling building materials to the villages in the bush of Alaska that have no road access.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

Several aircraft were observed, as late as 1990, by paratroopers with the 6th Infantry Division, to be in Forest Service use as jump planes for "smokejumper" firefighters in Alaska. These aircraft were boarded and toured, by the Army paratroopers, at Ft Wainwright, Alaska.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}