60 Years of Hercules

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tom slick

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60 years ago the first C-130 rolled off the Murrietta, Ga assembly line and it's been in active production since. 2400 of them have been built and they are used by Air Forces around the world.
A few missions it's used for;
Cargo and troop transport
Gunship
Surveillance
Psyops
Firefighting
Weather studies (hurricane hunters)
Arctic duty

It's even landed on an aircraft carrier

I spent 6 years in the early 2000s working on them in the Calif. Air National Guard. The newest C-130E I worked on was built in 1964 and they still were fully mission capable, in fact they served in the Middle East after 9/11. My old unit now has new CC-130J planes, I don't believe there are any C-130E still active.
http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/ta...ing-strong.aspx

http://m.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/20...130.html?r=full

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/08/us/c-130-hercules-military-plane-anniversary/
 
Originally Posted By: tom slick
The newest C-130E I worked on was built in 1964 and they still were fully mission capable, in fact they served in the Middle East after 9/11. My old unit now has new CC-130J planes, I don't believe there are any C-130E still active.


Was the "F" the last model to use the Allison 501 engine? I know I've seen some 501 powered Hercs flying recently (the 4 smoke trails give them away- definitely a "pre emissions" engine :) ) Also saw a NOAA P3 overhead a couple of days ago leaving the same 4 trails... not many P3s left in regular service either and its another one of my favorite old birds.

A friend of mine flew B-52's back in the 80s. At that time, there were already 2nd and a few 3rd generation B-52 pilots. He flew "G" and "H" models, but all the "G" have been retired since then. He had some good stories about water-injection takeoffs in the J57 powered G. The H was turbofan powered with no water injection- more powerful but less... um... "exciting" at times. :)
 
The big (only?) C-130 training base is down at Little Rock so Hercs are an extremely common sight in the sky around here. It's a rare day that I don't see ( or hear ) some.

I live under the pattern for our local airport so it's pretty easy to spot the pilots that are just transitioning into the plane, LOL.
 
And the Herc was the plan that Kelly Johnson said would break the company. That might have been a miscalculation on his part.

In Vietnam we rode those planes in and out of landing strips that were sometimes nothing more than a dirt road with space available that would give a Cessna 172 pilot a stoke. Feeling the engines reversing the props while landing was a rush.

One Herc had some initials on the side that were decoded for me by the crew chief.

OTD-AP-AT-AWAS-HAND

That's, on time delivery, any place, any time, always with a smile, have a nice day.
 
Originally Posted By: tom slick
The military calls the 501 a T56 and the last version with a T-56 is the H model. I worked on the T56-A-7 which is older and less powerful (only 4000 hp) but didn't smoke. The T56-A-15 is newer and smokes.
The C-130J uses RR AE2100 engines that are much more modern and more powerful than the old T56.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_T56
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AE2100



I worked on testing the compressor section of the T56 Series IV when I was an engineering co-op at Allison in 1981. And even then, we were proud of how long the T56 had been in production. I believe that engine eventually became the T56-15 in the C130J.
 
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There have been stories about conversations between pilots of Herc's and escorthing F-16's.

In one the F-16 does some loops and rolls and a hammerhead stall and says to the Herc pilot, how did you like that?

The Herc pilot said watch this. After some time had elapsed the F-16 pilot said well, I'm waiting. The Herc pilot said I got up stretched, took a dump, washed my hands and face, fixed a cup of hot coffee and heated up a chocolate covered donut in the microwave and now I'm done. How did you like that?
 
Originally Posted By: tom slick

The C-130J uses RR AE2100 engines that are much more modern and more powerful than the old T56.



Not to mention the new scimitar-blade props that are a whole lot more advanced than the square-tipped Aeroproducts (or were they Hamiltons? I always forget. P3 used one, C130 the other).
 
The T56 is paired with Ham. Std. Props square edge props and the AE2100 has Dowty carbon fiber props. The P3 has round edge props but I don't know who makes them. They are experimenting with an 8 blade upgrade for the T56.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
There have been stories about conversations between pilots of Herc's and escorthing F-16's.

In one the F-16 does some loops and rolls and a hammerhead stall and says to the Herc pilot, how did you like that?

The Herc pilot said watch this. After some time had elapsed the F-16 pilot said well, I'm waiting. The Herc pilot said I got up stretched, took a dump, washed my hands and face, fixed a cup of hot coffee and heated up a chocolate covered donut in the microwave and now I'm done. How did you like that?

crackmeup2.gif
crackmeup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
There have been stories about conversations between pilots of Herc's and escorthing F-16's.

In one the F-16 does some loops and rolls and a hammerhead stall and says to the Herc pilot, how did you like that?

The Herc pilot said watch this. After some time had elapsed the F-16 pilot said well, I'm waiting. The Herc pilot said I got up stretched, took a dump, washed my hands and face, fixed a cup of hot coffee and heated up a chocolate covered donut in the microwave and now I'm done. How did you like that?



LMAO!! Priceless!!!!
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What a work horse. We certainly got our moneys worth out of that program.
I'm sure you guys have seen the Blue Angels "Fat Albert" do a Rocket Assisted Take Off.
 
One of the awesome things about the C-130J upgraded engines is it matches a JATO without using JATO. Another awesome upgrade is it has a real toilet.
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Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
There have been stories about conversations between pilots of Herc's and escorthing F-16's.

In one the F-16 does some loops and rolls and a hammerhead stall and says to the Herc pilot, how did you like that?

The Herc pilot said watch this. After some time had elapsed the F-16 pilot said well, I'm waiting. The Herc pilot said I got up stretched, took a dump, washed my hands and face, fixed a cup of hot coffee and heated up a chocolate covered donut in the microwave and now I'm done. How did you like that?

I told my neighbor this joke The retired pilot and he started as a Marine pilot [aviator?] He flew the A4 and the C130 as well as others and he smiled and said yep I done both. Why do pilots smile when they talk flying
grin.gif
 
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