C-130 Hercules

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engined turboprop military transport aircraft built by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Designed as a troop, medical-evacuation and cargo transport able to use unprepared runways, it first flew on 23 August 1954 and entered United States Air Force (USAF) service in December 1956; the US Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard also fly it, and Australia became the first foreign operator in 1958. More than 40 variants, including the civilian L-100, operate in more than 60 nations. More than 2,700 had been built by June 2024; the C-130 is the longest continuously produced military aircraft, having achieved 70 years of production in 2024.

Development

After the Korean War exposed the limits of its piston-engined C-119, C-47 and C-46 transports, the USAF issued a General Operating Requirement on 2 February 1951 to nine manufacturers for a transport carrying 92 passengers, 72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers in a hold about 12 m (41 ft) long, 2.7 m (9 ft) high and 3.0 m (10 ft) wide, loaded through a hinged rear ramp, with a range of 2,040 km (1,100 nmi). Five firms submitted ten proposals, and the lighter of Lockheed's two designs, the L-206, beat a four-turboprop Douglas design; Lockheed won the contract for the Model 82 on 2 July 1951, and the Allison T56 turboprop was developed for the aircraft.

The YC-130 prototype made a 61-minute first flight from Burbank, California, on 23 August 1954; production then moved to Marietta, Georgia. The C-130A was delivered from December 1956, and its short range led to pylon tanks outboard of the engines that added 2,700 kg (6,000 lb) of fuel for an 18,000 kg (40,000 lb) total. The C-130B of 1959 added centre-wing tanks, four-bladed propellers and uprated engines; the C-130E of 1962 hung 5,100 L (1,360 US gal) external tanks under each wing; the C-130H, delivered from 1964 to 1996, brought T56-A-15 engines and a redesigned outer wing.

The Royal Air Force launched the C-130J with a 25-aircraft, US$1.6 billion fixed-price order on 16 December 1994, and the first flight followed on 5 April 1996. Stall behaviour caused by the more powerful engines and six-bladed propellers, then tail icing, pushed development spending from a US$300 million budget to over US$900 million by May 1998. FAA type certification came in September 1998 after 4,000 flight-test hours, and a December 2004 Pentagon decision to end USAF procurement was reversed in May 2005.

Design

The C-130E, H and J share a hold 12.19 m (40 ft) long, 3.02 m (9 ft 11 in) wide and 2.74 m (9 ft) high, taking 92 passengers, 64 paratroopers, 74 litter patients, six pallets or two M113 armoured personnel carriers. The C-130H weighs 70,307 kg (155,000 lb) at maximum take-off weight and carries a crew of five; its four T56-A-15s of 3,420 kW (4,590 shp) each give a maximum speed of 590 km/h (320 kn) and a range of 3,800 km (2,050 nmi), and take-off needs 1,093 m (3,586 ft) at maximum weight but 427 m (1,400 ft) at 36,287 kg (80,000 lb).

The C-130J keeps the airframe but fits Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 turboprops of 3,458 kW (4,637 shp) each, Dowty R391 six-bladed composite scimitar propellers with tips swept 35 degrees, and digital avionics with a head-up display for each pilot. Range grows 40%, maximum speed 21% and take-off distance shrinks 41% against the E/H, and maximum take-off weight rises to 74,389 kg (164,000 lb). The crew falls to two pilots and a loadmaster working from a computerised cargo-handling station. The stretched C-130J-30 adds 4.6 m (15 ft) of fuselage for a 16.76 m (55 ft) hold carrying 128 passengers, 92 paratroopers, 97 litters or eight 463L pallets.

Armament

The C-130H lifts a 19,000 kg (42,000 lb) payload and the C-130J-30 20,000 kg (44,000 lb); both drop paratroopers, pallets and heavy equipment from the ramp. The AC-130 gunship, developed in the Vietnam War for close air support, has flown in every large US combat operation since except the 1986 Libya strike. MC-130 Combat Talons dropped BLU-82 bombs to clear landing zones and minefields in the 1991 Gulf War, and an MC-130 made the first operational GBU-43/B drop in Afghanistan in April 2017. In 2021 the Air Force Research Laboratory demonstrated Rapid Dragon, a palletised dispenser able to launch 12 JASSM-ER cruise missiles with 500 kg warheads from 925 km (575 mi) stand-off, and the Marine Corps Harvest HAWK kit is designed to arm the KC-130J with Hellfire or Griffin missiles and guided bombs.

Operational History

The first C-130As reached the 463d and 314th Troop Carrier Wings in 1956, and twelve ski-equipped C-130Ds supported DEW Line radar construction on the Greenland ice cap from 1958. In October–November 1963 a Marine Corps KC-130F made 21 full-stop landings and 21 unassisted take-offs from USS Forrestal, still the record for the largest aircraft operated from a carrier. In November 1964 C-130Es dropped and airlifted Belgian paratroopers to rescue hostages at Stanleyville (Operation Dragon Rouge), earning the type its first MacKay Trophy. In 1976 four Israeli C-130s flew 4,074 km (2,200 nmi) at low level to land 200 soldiers at Entebbe, and 15 nations flew the type in Afghanistan from 2001.

The C-130J has served the USAF and USMC in Iraq and Afghanistan and flew in the 2011 Libya operations; by 30 April 2013, 290 aircraft in 13 nations had logged one million hours, and an Indian Air Force C-130J landed at Daulat Beg Oldi at 5,064 m (16,614 ft) on 20 August 2013. As of March 2022, 500 C-130Js had been delivered to 26 operators in 22 countries, 273 of them with the USAF, 65 with the USMC/USN and 15 with the Coast Guard. The RAF withdrew its fleet on 30 June 2023; recent orders and approvals include 24 C-130J-30s for Australia (November 2022), 12 for Egypt (January 2022), five for New Zealand (first delivered 8 August 2024) and three for the Philippines.

Variants

• C-130A: Initial production model with T56-A-9 engines and three-bladed propellers, 219 ordered and delivered from December 1956; ski-equipped conversions became the C-130D.
• C-130B: Uprated T56-A-7s, four-bladed propellers and centre-wing fuel tanks, 134 ordered, in service May 1959.
• C-130E: Extended-range model with two underwing external tanks and a higher gross weight, 389 ordered from August 1962; the civilian L-100 derives from it.
• C-130H: T56-A-15 engines and a redesigned outer wing, built from 1964 to 1996; the RAF C-130K and the stretched C-130H-30 derive from it.
• KC-130F/R/T/J: Marine Corps tanker-transports with a removable 14,000 L (3,600 US gal) cabin tank and two hose-and-drogue pods each transferring 1,100 L/min (300 US gal/min).
• AC-130A/E/H/U/W/J: Gunship conversions for close air support, from the Vietnam-era AC-130A to the current AC-130J Ghostrider.
• C-130J Super Hercules: Re-engined two-pilot model with AE 2100D3 turboprops, six-bladed propellers and digital avionics, in standard and stretched -30 lengths; the only version in production.