Developed after World War II by Fairchild Aircraft Corporation, the venerable C-119 carried cargo, personnel, litter patients, and mechanized equipment, and dropped cargo and troops by parachute. The first C-119 flew in November 1947, and by the time production ceased in 1955, more than 1100 had been built. The Air Force used the C-119 extensively during the Korean Conflict, and many were also employed by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps and the air forces of Canada, Belgium, Italy, and India. In South Vietnam, the aircraft entered combat again as the AC-119 gunship, equipped with side-firing weapons capable of firing up to 6,000 rounds per minute each. The C-119G at Gen. Mitchell Air Reserve Station's Heritage Park has been painted to replicate Flying Boxcar tail number 51-2680, assigned to the 440th Troop Carrier Wing (Medium). That aircraft and the ten people on board were lost on June 5, 1965, in the seas off the coast of Grand Turk Island at the far southeast end of the Bahama Islands, and neither the crew nor the aircraft was recovered, nor was the cause of the accident ever determined. The 440th operated the C-119 from 1957 to 1971, when it converted to the A-model C-130 Hercules.