A Herkbird In 1980

[donwon]

I watched a program last night where there were rocket engines built onto a C-130.

It was built to stop in 1400\' and take off in 1800\'.

When it would touch down 2 rocket engines on each side of the fusilage would act as reverse, and on take off there was a bounch of them helping it take off faster.

It was to be used to rescue the hostages that were taken

while carter(I think) was President.

There was a video of the plane comeing in for a landing while in the testing phase.

The rockets were ignited before the plane touched down and crashed.

Does anyone else know anything about this?

[loadsmith]

here you go....I am pretty sure that it was mentioned previously but our current CSAF has logged some time in the YMC-130 according to his bio. enjoy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Credible_Sport

[tinwhistle]

I don\'t know about the stoping part, but back in the mid 1960s we used JATO (jet assist take off) every once in awhile. That is what came to mind when reading your question. It wouldn\'t take a lot to re-rig JATO for landings.

[casey]

I believe you were watching \"Destroyed in Seconds.\" It had some great footage of the Credible Sport Aircraft and the crash.

There is some footage on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=credible+sport&search_type=&aq=f

[donwon]

Destroyed in seconds is what I was watching.

I had never heard of that plane before.

There was another story about that rescue on

\"When Weather Went Wrong\"

My dialup is too slow for UTube.

[donwon]

Thanks for the link. It is an interesting read.

[bobdaley]

The plane was a C130H from Dyess modified to a YMC-130H.

They were going to build 3.

74-1683 crashed, 74-1686 is on display at Robins AFB in the YMC configuration. 74-2065 was demoded to a C-130H and returned to Dyess.

Bob

[tinyclark]

I know they were supposed to fire just before touchdown, but maybe they should have had them fired off using the weight on wheels switch.

This was before CARA, and the APN150 Radar Altimeter was a piece of, well, let\'s just say it wasn\'t Shinola.

Of course, that\'s if they were using any instrument reading to light them off.

[donwon]

tiny clark wrote:

I know they were supposed to fire just before touchdown, but maybe they should have had them fired off using the weight on wheels switch.

This was before CARA, and the APN150 Radar Altimeter was a piece of, well, let\'s just say it wasn\'t Shinola.

Of course, that\'s if they were using any instrument reading to light them off.

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw it.

Why not use the touchdown switch on the MLG.

[Guest]

The birds had drooped leading edges on the wings, hinged flaps for greater extension, extended horsal and dorsals, and an extended chord rudder that would allow control in flight at much slower speeds.

The intent was to fly into downtown Tehran, land and takeoff on a soccer field.

[Guest cobra935o]

Here is the plane on display at Robins AFB Museum.

[Guest cobra935o]

OK, so here it really is at Robins!

[img size=640]http://herkybirds.com/images/fbfiles/images/DSC01814.JPG

Oh yeah, I want credit for the photo as well, Nathan, hehe!

[Guest]

For those who might be interested, there are pages of photos of the airplane, plus some modeling sketches and diagrams at:

http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee297/crediblesport/?start=0

John