A day late. 23 August 1954, the first YC-130 prototype made its 1-hour maiden voyage from Lockheed Burbank to Edwards AFB.
The Hercules has been in production since 1956, making it the longest continuously-built military airframe, and probably one of the longest type production runs of any kind.
Happy birhtday, Herk!
I remember being slightly disappointed when finding out I'd be working on a C130. It wasn't sexy like a fighter or even the newer C17. That changed quickly. Amazing how long that plane just keeps going with minor updates. She might not be the sexiest girl in the room but she'll rock your boat better than any of them.
One of the best parts of the '07 Transformers was where they use the AC130 gunship and are firing the big 105mm gun
Also, it never got past the testing stage, but Operation Credible Sport is one the the wildest uses of a Herky Bird. "Hey, let's jam a berkeleyload of JATO rockets on a C130 to convert it to an STOL that can takeoff and land inside a football stadium and then go land on an aircraft carrier. What could go wrong?"
Ok this is the one I worked on. Back to work but I'll link more later.
They repair or upgrade them at Donaldson Center in Greenville, SC. I see them fairly often making test flights into GSP or the Spartanburg Airport.
First deployment was nothing fun, just comm cable stuff, but we got to go climb around on Spooky 0509 for a couple hours one day. Its funny, she eventually was assigned to the 919th, and so was I.
I got two of each spent rounds that she carried. No way to confirm it, but one of my groomsmen was in the Army and called in air support and an AC-130 showed up. The time frame of when I got the spent shells and him needing air support overlaps.
a
They fly over the house pretty frequently(especially during storm season) at around 300-500ft. I love hearing them on approach as it reminds me of the bombers from old WWII movies. At least until they pass overhead & you can hear the turbine whine.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
I work a mile or so off the end of the local regional airport, which is also an ANG base. I see and hear them heading in or out pretty low all the time.
Where I grew up in rural Maryland (1980s), they would fly patterns around our house, maybe 500-1500 ft up. Always in groups of 4: 3 in drab, relatively close formation, followed by the 4th in black, maybe a mile astern of the main group.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:They fly over the house pretty frequently(especially during storm season) at around 300-500ft. I love hearing them on approach as it reminds me of the bombers from old WWII movies. At least until they pass overhead & you can hear the turbine whine.
I could tell you some fun training stories. Doing low levels in the Ozarks at 300 ft and the time I smoked a cig on the ramp of one at the same level. Yes I had a harness on. Yes I E36 M3 myself every time the it moved from straight and level.
At one point they asked for volunteers to test this system on the Combat Talon I which we still had a few at the time. Apparently it hadn't been done for years. My dumbass said hell yeah. Fortunately for me they decided to test with sandbags instead. Now that would have been a story to tell the grandkids.
I've got 3500 hrs flying them. I love those beautiful beasts. I can make these motherberkeleyers dance.
If you love the Herkybird, you owe it to yourself to read this book:
You'll need to log in to post.
