William C. Voigt (1920-2017), Dover. As a little boy he fell hopelessly in love with airplanes. At age seven, in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, the lad declared his intention: • to become a pilot like "Lindy." He fulfilled his dream many times over and today at eighty-seven continues his romance with wings.
A native of Baltimore, Bill joined the Maryland National Guard in 1939. He became an aviation cadet in March 1942 and won his wings in March 1943. Assigned to the Air Transport Command, he trained in cargo planes—also in fighters to ferry them from factory, including P-39s on their first leg to Russia. Though he criss-crossed the globe delivering planes, troops and supplies, his most memorable action was post-war—hauling coal in the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. He piloted 116 trips, mostly in C-54s.
Continuing his Air Force career, Voigt became certified in 19 different aircraft types before he retired as a major in 1962. Last was a C-124 out of Dover AFB, raising his total time to 11,300 hours, 4,500 of them in the four-engine C-54.
His romance with the C-54 refused to die. As a charter member of the Dover Air Force Base Air Mobility Command Museum volunteer corps, Major Voigt has devoted hundreds of hours annually to aircraft restoration. When the museum acquired a C-54 in 1989, Bill checked its tail number against his flight logs.
"I knew it was my plane," he said. Yes, it was one he flew to Berlin. It took him and his companions five years to restore it to original airlift stature. The ship is now a showcase at the museum.
In 1976, Voigt got a bachelors in business and became a business office manager in the Delaware State Department of Education. He retired in 1985 but continued to serve as a docent at the DAFB museum. He conducted lectures from the left seat of "his" C-54.
