Dutch

Sir, My e-mail is [email protected] Thank you. "Dutch"

Dick Pulver, who had been a project engineer on the P-38 and Constellation, was chosen to be the lead engineer on the C-130. "We set up a separate organization for those two prototypes and set aside a piece of the factory for production. Dick Pulver did a beautiful job of running it," Hawkins adds. "The two aircraft were delivered on schedule and on cost. The test pilots gave the aircraft a good wringing out. The performance matched our estimates." The first flight of the YC-130, which was the second aircraft built, came on 23 August 1954 with company test pilots Stan Beltz and Roy Wimmer at the controls. Dick Stanton was the flight engineer, and Jack Real was the flight test engineer. During the sixty-one minute flight, the aircraft was flown from Burbank to the Air Force Flight Test Station at nearby Edwards AFB. Johnson, whose thinking on the C-130 had changed dramatically as the aircraft was being built, flew in the chase aircraft, a P2V Neptune. The second YC-130 prototype, the first aircraft off the line, was used in the ground-based static test program, and was finally flown for the first time on 21 January 1955. With production of the T-33, Constellation, and Neptune in full swing, Burbank facilities had no space for an additional production line. Shortly after Lockheed won the contract for the YC-130s, officials decided to move the program to the company's new factory in Georgia if the C-130 went into production. "We had just reopened Air Force Plant 6 in Marietta, mainly for license production of the B-47 Stratojet," notes Hawkins. "Lockheed and Douglas had won the right to be the second-source producers for the bomber. We were already cleaning up the Marietta plant and decided it had plenty of room for C-130 production. "We sent the whole design team to Georgia, as they were in charge of working up the production proposal to the Air Force," recalls Hawkins. "Most of them went kicking and screaming, because they didn't want to have anything to do with Georgia. Two years later, we tried to bring them back to California, and they were kicking and screaming again because they liked Georgia so much that they didn't want to come back. The Hercules has been in Georgia ever since. "The design team changed some things to make the C-130 cheaper to produce, but not too much. The visual differences between the production aircraft and the prototypes are not noticeable," Hawkins notes. "What has happened with the C-130 since those early days has been absolutely remarkable." On To Other Things After working on the XFV experimental vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, Hawkins was tapped to start the new Lockheed Missiles and Space Division in Sunnyvale, California, near San Francisco. "I was one of the founders of Missiles and Space and eventually ended up running the space half," Hawkins recalls. Among other things, he headed the X-17 reentry test vehicle and the UGM-27 Polaris sea-launched ballistic missile program — the US Navy's first SLBM — for which he was awarded the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Medal. "One of my projects while at Missiles and Space was declassified about three years ago," Hawkins notes. "We were taking pictures of Russia from space, and if you don't think the Corona satellite program had some adventures... ." Some of those adventures included having one entire satellite crash in Antarctica and another one lost in Finland. The first successful Corona mission came on the thirteenth try, but the ejected film canister was lost when it came down 1,200 miles from where it was expected. After the fourteenth launch, the film canister, known as a bucket, was recovered. "A presidential aide mentioned to Eisenhower that it was the first object to have ever been recovered from space. The president picked up on that and insisted that the bucket be presented to the Smithsonian," Hawkins recalls. "So there was Eisenhower, Gen. Bernard Schriever (the architect of the Air Force's ballistic missile program), and half a dozen Washington big wheels at the Smithsonian for a formal ceremony. I have never figured out what story they told to explain how that bucket got to the museum." The JC-130, a modified Hercules, was used for midair recovery of the photographic buckets from later missions. Hawkins served as assistant secretary for research and development for the Army from 1962 to 1965, where he was instrumental in starting development of the M1 Abrams main battle tank. He then returned to Lockheed and took Hibbard's spot on the board of directors, and retired from day-to-day activity in the early 1980s. Lockheed chairman Roy Anderson brought Hawkins back to run the Lockheed — California Company on an interim basis in the 1980s. Hawkins retired for good in 1986. Even in retirement, Hawkins was called on as a consultant. During flight test on the C-130J, test crews got the aircraft down to what should have been the stall speed, but it kept on flying. "At that point, the crew started wondering what the actual stall speed was," notes Hawkins. "They slowed down and slowed down some more and nothing. Suddenly, at a very slow speed, the C-130 did a snap roll, and it scared the hell out of the crew. It looked like we had a problem. The aircraft would not stall. "Engineers determined the new six-bladed propellers on the C-130J cleaned the boundary layer of air off the root of the wing. I spent a couple of months in Georgia helping them work that out. A better boundary layer control system could not be designed intentionally," Hawkins adds. "We tried vortex generators, rakes, fences, and leading-edge stall strips, but could not get it to stall. We ended up installing a stick pusher, just like in a fighter, that takes over and pushes the nose down. You still can't stall that aircraft." Today, though Hawkins describes himself as "ninety and fat," he is still trim, owns Hawkins Airport (a grass strip in northern Michigan where he has never landed), and drives to the Van Nuys Airport every day to work on his latest project — a kit plane he is building "out of habit," he says. He views the C-130 as one of his greatest successes: "The C-130 is not exactly an attractive aircraft. It is still in production and still doing the job it was designed for. Originally, some questioned who would want to buy such an aircraft. Irv Culver, one of our engineers, said that if we made it right the first time, we could sell it to anybody. I think we must have done it exactly right." Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.

A Long Association That encounter in Hall Hibbard's office was probably the biggest disagreement between Willis Hawkins and Kelly Johnson. But it was not the first time the two engineering geniuses had not quite seen eye to eye. "In the late 1930s, Kelly knew that the P-38 needed counter-rotating propellers," Hawkins recalls. "But he was convinced they needed to rotate toward the pilot with the blades coming over the top. Several of us had to convince him they needed to rotate away from the pilot with the blades coming up from the bottom. We tried it both ways in flight test and our choice better counteracted the torque and was a little safer for the pilot. The P-38 became a more docile, pilot-friendly flying machine after that." The two men first met in 1933, when Johnson, then assistant to Hibbard, brought the Lockheed Model 10 to the wind tunnel at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Hawkins, then an undergraduate, ran the wind tunnel. "The original Electra design had a single vertical tail, which didn't have enough area. So the aircraft had stability and dead engine control problems," Hawkins notes. "Kelly came up with the idea of putting end plates on the horizontal tail. The plates not only provided enough area, they put the tails into the slipstream behind the engine, which made for better control." Johnson and Hawkins fabricated the new verticals for the model in the tunnel shop and the design change worked. The Electra was a huge success; 148 aircraft were built. The Electra became a direct ancestor to the storied Hudson patrol bomber in World War II. "We faced a similar stability problem with the Constellation a decade later," Hawkins adds. "The original design had two tails, but they didn't provide enough stability for the big airliner. We couldn't make the twin tails taller because then the design wouldn't fit in TWA's hangars. We couldn't extend them from the bottom of the stabilizer, because they would scrape the runway when it landed. I came up with the idea of the third vertical." The triple tail became the Constellation's most notable design feature. Hail To The Victors Hawkins, the only child of a divorced mother, attended an experimental high school established by the head of a summer camp where he had worked. "Five of us were in the school's first graduating class," Hawkins recalls. "Unfortunately, the school was not accredited anywhere in the world. "I decided to go to the University of Michigan, but I was told I had to take fifteen exams and then I still might not get in. Well, I didn't want to do that. I enrolled in a little college in Illinois that had about 1,200 students. I took all the math and physics courses there I could. Then I transferred to Michigan. "I had taken years of advanced physics courses at Michigan and passed them all. But I hadn't taken one particular transfer student physics course. The physics department wasn't going to let me graduate because I hadn't taken the course. I left and took a job in industry. After a year, I came to my senses, went back to school, and took some graduate courses. Only then did I get special dispensation to finally get my degree." Decades later, Hawkins received an honorary doctorate, but only after the university chancellor had smoothed things over with the physics department about that Physics 101 course missing from his transcript. Hawkins, his college roommate, and a mutual friend all received telegrams from Lockheed Aircraft in 1937. "I was probably hired on the basis of Kelly's recommendation," Hawkins says. "That telegram noted my starting salary of $1,500 a year. All three of us lived out our professional lives at Lockheed, and we were all quite successful." Coincidentally, after Hawkins moved to California, he would later buy a house from Allan Lockheed, one of the brothers who had started the company in 1913. After Lockheed Aircraft had gone into receivership for a week in 1932, Allan became so disgusted with the airplane business, he took up real estate as a career. Designing The Hercules A number of Lockheed legacy aircraft carry Hawkins' fingerprints. He was a structural component designer on the P-38, Hudson, and Lodestar. In 1947, he organized and headed the team that developed the X-7 ramjet test vehicle. He was the head of the preliminary design group that produced the Constellation, P-80, XF-90, F-94, and F-104. Then came the C-130. "Doing things for the US government is always a little bit complicated," Hawkins observes. "The C-130 program was a little simpler. The RFP had a list of payloads the Air Force needed to carry in the new plane. That set the height and weight of the cargo hold. It is a great compliment to the Air Force that the people who wrote the requirements did it right the first time. They had no predisposition to what the aircraft should look like. The Tactical Air Command guys who were going to get the airplane knew what the requirements were, and how it looked was up to us. "We basically took the dimensions of the biggest piece of equipment the Air Force had specified, drew a circle around its cross section, and turned the circle into a tube about the length of a railroad boxcar. We put wings, a nose, and a tail on it, and we had the design," Hawkins adds. "We put the aircraft low to the ground so we could use the ramp to get cargo on and off easily." The design team recognized that this was the first tactical cargo aircraft the Air Force had designed from scratch. "Even though Kelly didn't agree, we thought the C-130 might have a good span of production for the Air Force," Hawkins notes. "As soon as the Air Force started flying the aircraft, other air forces came to us and started asking questions about it." Lockheed built a full-scale mock-up of the complete fuselage, one engine, and a section of wing. The government held its first mock-up board review session in the mock-up itself. "We put the tables and projectors on the cargo floor," Hawkins says. "After the review, the Air Force didn't change much with the design aside from some detail changes in the cockpit. We didn't mind making those changes since we had not built the prototypes." In the days when the C-130 was conceived, all the commercial transports — DC-4, DC-5, Stratoliner, and Constellation — had a flight engineer. "Pilots thought the aircraft had too many engines to keep track of, so the planes couldn't have a two-pilot operation," observes Hawkins. "The copilot and the flight engineer ran the aircraft, and the pilot flew it. The C-130 came at a transition time. Nobody was used to turbine engines, and the Allison T56 engine was complicated for its day. No one was certain how much equipment to put in the flight engineer's station to keep those engines running."

Extracted from the Lockheed Code One Magazine Willis Hawkins And The Genesis Of The Hercules By Jeff Rhodes "If this design is really as terrible as Kelly Johnson says it is, the Air Force will think that, too, and they'll give the contract to somebody else. I think we ought to submit the proposal." With those words, Willis Hawkins convinced his boss, Hall Hibbard, then vice president and chief engineer of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, to submit the proposal for the aircraft that would become the C-130 Hercules. It was 10 April 1951.Hawkins was thirty-seven years old and in charge of the Advanced Design department for Lockheed. He led the team that in a little over two months had come up with the design for what was being called the Model 82 in response to a US Air Force request for proposal for a new transport. The idea for this new transport came at the end of a hastily called budget meeting a week after the Korean War broke out in June 1950. Participants at the meeting formulated ideas for spending additional research and development money. An Air Force colonel, whose name is lost to history, remarked that the service needed an extremely rugged medium transport that could land on unprepared airstrips. The aircraft, to be used primarily for freight transport, needed to carry about 30,000 pounds to a range of 1,500 miles. It also needed the capability to carry troops. The additional funds stayed in the budget, as did most of that colonel's proposed requirements. The Air Force issued a general operational requirement on 2 February 1951 to Boeing, Douglas, Fairchild, and Lockheed for a transport able to: (1) Carry ninety-two infantrymen or sixty-four paratroopers on a mission with a combat radius of 1,100 nautical miles or, alternatively, a 30,000-pound cargo more than 960 miles; (2) Operate from short, unprepared airstrips of clay, sand, or humus soil; (3) Slow down to 125 knots for paradrops and even slower for assault landings; (4) Have both a rear ramp operable in flight for heavy equipment drops and side doors for paratroop drops; (5) Handle bulky and heavy equipment including bulldozers, artillery pieces, and trucks; and (6) Fly with one engine out. Hawkins, now ninety and still mentally sharp and physically active, recalls that the Air Force's request for proposal contained only seven pages. "We got the RFP and set up teams to look at performance, develop a description of the aircraft, and determine weight. We also had to estimate development cost." A Short Meeting "Our proposal was bigger than the Air Force's seven-page RFP, but still only about 130 pages and maybe three-quarters of an inch thick. We took it to Hibbard so he could sign a letter that committed the company to our estimates. We also brought a design model, which had a wingspan of about fifteen inches. Hall looked at the model, thumbed through the proposal, and asked a few questions. Then he asked, 'Has Kelly seen this?' We said, no, we haven't seen Johnson for a couple of months. He's working on something secret (which turned out to be the F-104) and hasn't been around. Hibbard said, 'Well, Kelly ought to look at it.' "Hibbard was Johnson's boss. So when Hall called, Kelly had to come. Kelly looked at the model and thumbed through the performance part of the proposal. He then said, 'Hibbard, if you sign that letter, you will destroy the Lockheed Company.' And with that he walked out of the office. "Kelly wasn't much interested in the transport. It didn't carry bombs, didn't have machine guns, and didn't fly Mach 3. After an awkward pause, Hibbard finally said, 'Well, Willy, that model has a lovely finish.' I went back to work on Hibbard. I said, look, the Air Force expects us to submit a proposal. We told them we would, and we have to get it in the mail today." Hibbard signed the letter and Johnson did, in the end, sign off on the proposal. Lockheed was informed that the company had won the competition on 2 July 1951. Nine days later, the Air Force awarded the formal contract for two prototypes to be designated YC-130.

Bob, This is 953 it was still there in 70-71 while I was at Danang. I was in QC :mad: in a FAC outfit the 20 TASS we had a FOL there and I had to go in and do differant insp. The building in the picture are for munition storage. Not berms around them. "Dutch"

C-130A Data Aircraft Role: Multirole Airlift Transport Manufacturer: Lockheed Nickname: Hercules Description: High Wing, Medium range transport Time Line: January, 1951 – The USAF Tactical Air Command develops requirements for the new tactical transport; conceptual studies initiated. February 2, 1951 – The USAF Material Command issues Request for Proposals (RFP) to Boeing, Douglas, Fairchild and Lockheed April, 1951 - Preliminary designs submitted by Lockheed to the Air Force. July, 2 1951 - Lockheed named winner of the competition, awarded contract for two YC-130A prototype aircraft. August, 1951 – Work started at Burbank on the prototypes. September 19, 1952 – The Air Force issues letter contract to Lockheed for seven C-130A aircraft. September 22, 1952 – First Georgia Company engineering personnel transferred to Lockheed-California to work on the C-130A September 3, 1953 – Full scale mockup arrives at Marietta, Ga. after trip by ship from Los Angeles via the Panama Canal to Savannah, Ga. April 21, 1954 – Definitive contract issued by the USAF for 20 C-130A’s August 23, 1954 – YC-130A LAC No. 1002, Serial No. 53-3397 makes first flight from Burbank, CA to Edwards AFB, CA 61 minutes. September 15, 1954 – Air Force Issues letter contract for 48 C-130A’s January 12, 1955 – Static test program started with LAC No. 3002, Serial No. 53-3130. March 10, 1955 – First production C-130A LAC No. 3001, Serial No. 53-3129 (First Lady) rolls out at Marietta, GA. April 7, 1955 - First production C-130A LAC No. 3001, Serial No. 53-3129 makes first flight at Marietta, GA. April 14, 1955 – On third flight of first production C-130A LAC No. 3001, Serial No. 53-3129, fire erupts on left wing after plane touches down at Dobbins AFB, GA. August 10, 1955 – The Air Force issues letter of contract to Lockheed for 84 C-130A’s. November 26, 1955 – First flight of C-130A equipped with Aeroproducts propellers accomplished on LAC No. 3006, Serial No. 53-3134. January 6, 1956 – C-130A LAC No. 3005, Serial No. 53-3133 delivered to USAF and flown to Eglin AFB, FL, for Phase V, flight testing. February 6, 1956 – First flight of First production C-130A LAC No. 3001, Serial No. 53-3129 following fire. July 6, 1956 – Flight testing completed of Aeroproducts propellers on LAC No. 3006, Serial No. 53-3134 July 28, 1956 – C-130A LAC No. 3003, Serial No. 53-3131 delivered to Edwards AFB, CA, for Phase IV testing. October 25 1956 – C-130A LAC No. 3005, Serial No. 53-3133 delivered to Tactical Air Command (TAC) at Dayton, OH (First USAF fleet delivery) November 8, 1956 – Simulated Tactical Air Command (TAC) mission of 2026 miles flown utilizing LAC No. 3011, Serial No. 54-1624, Duration of 7:08 hours. December 9, 1956 – First C-130A’s delivered to Tactical Air Command (TAC) operational squadron at Ardmore AFB, OK (463rd Tactical Airlift Wing) First aircraft was LAC no. 3050, Serial No. 55-0023. September 6, 1957 – First C-130A’s arrive at Evreux-Fauville AB, France. Deliveries: First delivery in 1956 Last delivery in 1959 Crew: 5, Pilot, Copilot, Navigator, Engineer and Loadmaster. Speeds: Cruise 328 mph Max 384 mph Base rate of climb: 2,570 ft/min Ceiling: 41,300 ft Range: 2,090 miles Configuration for Personnel: 92 Seating, 64 Paratroops or 74 Litters Weights: Maximum Weight 124,200 lbs Maximum Landing Weight-5 fps 124,200 lbs Maximum Landing Weight-9 fps 96,000 lbs Gross Weight 108,000 lbs Empty Weight 59,328 lbs Operating Weight 61,842 lbs Maximum Payload 40,000 lbs Fuel: Fuel Capacity @ 5.6 lbs/gal 39,955 lbs Internal Tanks 5,250 gals External Tanks 900 gals Total Fuel Volume 6,150 gals Power Plant: Engine Model: T-56A-9 or -11 Takeoff Power 3,750 equivalent shaft horse power Number of propeller blades 3 Propeller Diameter 15.0 ft Outboard Propeller Ground Clearance 68.0 in Inboard Propeller Ground Clearance 60.6 in Inboard Propeller to Fuselage Clearance 28.8 in Wing: Span 132 ft 7 in Area 1,745 sq ft Loading 71.2 lb per sq ft Aspect Ratio 10.09 Dihedral 2 deg 30 minutes Tip Radius 85.0 ft Wing Airfoil sections: Root NACA 64A318 TIP NACA 64A412 Dimensions: Cargo Compartment Floor Length 41.0 ft Cargo Compartment Width 120.0 in Cargo Compartment Height 108.0 in Cargo Compartment Floor Area 533.0 sq ft Cargo Compartment usable Volume 4,500 cu ft Nose Gear Turning Radius 37.0 ft Wheel Base 32.1 ft Main Gear Tire Size 20:00-20 Nose Gear Tire Size 12:50-16 Length of aircraft 97 ft 9 in Height of aircraft 38 ft 3 in Exterior width of fuselage 14 ft 3 in Exterior height of fuselage 15 ft Width of the Horizontal Stabilizer 52 ft 8 in Notes: Operating Weight includes external tanks. External tanks are optional Cargo compartment floor areas and volumes include ramp space. C-130A Orders / Deliveries USAF 219 / 219 RAAF 12 / 12 Total 231 / 231

airnav wrote: Try this on for size: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/AirAmerica/Best/Bird&CASI.htm

Anyone have a S/N?

Say guys, I had a party suit while in SEA. It had no patches, or any of that fancy stuff. It was green, had stripes an name tag, a U. S. Air Force tag and came with a set if shoes that had steal inserts in them. There were not many of those other type suits @ Da Nang, AB, RVN. Just a lot of fine men doing the job that they were trained for if not ducking under their beds as the 122 MM rockets tore up the place at night.

rivars wrote: Rick, I thank you for that.

EFLTatCCK wrote: I too would like to have them sent to me. It would help me lot in my research. [email protected]

Hell yes there is intrest, I was there at the end. I ran the Phase dock @ that time. I would like to see the rest of it.

How far you want to go back??? My first TDY was from Little Rock AFB, AR to Tinker AFB, OK. Time frame 1958, to support the operation \"Milk Bottle\" a rework of the wing on the B-47 wings. Had of a hell of a lot of fun:angry: Damn that along time ago.

Folks, What I am about to say is for all of the troops that are now serving in the Armed Service\'s Today. To late for all of us old F_rts. As WWII Vet told me back in 1956 after I reported to the 70th SRW at Little Rock AFB, AR. SAVE ALL AND ANY PAPER WORK YOU GET IN ANY FORM.:ohmy: It may save you one of the followng: Money, Time, Money and Trouble. (Not to mention Money.)

I too would like a copy of it. Frank L. Shultz, JR. 900 Gravel Street Apt. 9 Cassville, MO, 65625-1361 Let me know what I owe you. Thanks in Advance. \"Dutch\"

I donot want to start something but I thought this might be if interest to some. C-130J Off To War, Opens New Air Force Chapter Regular duty to put new cargo plane to test By Amy Schlesing, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Capt. Ben Robins raised his hands in the air and cheered from his perch on a concrete barrier near the edge of the Little Rock Air Force Base flight line Monday as he watched the C-130J slowly roll toward the runway. Shortly before 6 p.m., as the evening sun set the sky ablaze with streaks of pink and orange, Lt. Col. Dan Tulley, 41st Airlift Squadron commander, coaxed Tail No. 3145 airborne, the first C-130J cargo plane in the active Air Force to deploy to war. This moment was nine months in the making - the hardest of Robins\' life with possibly the exception, he noted, of the eight sleepless months after his son was born. Since the 41st opened for business in April, Robins - the squadron readiness and mobility officer - has juggled the paperwork necessary to send the base\'s newest squadron and the Air Force\'s newest cargo planes to war. \"We are throwing the newest airframe full time into the desert,\" said Col. Jeff Hoffer, 463rd Airlift Group commander. \"And our guys are excited about it.\" The Air Force is looking at the 41st - and the 463rd - to help establish the standard for the C-130J. This deployment is the beginning of a constant rotation of 41st troops and planes to the war zone. In the next four months, the men and women of the 41st Airlift Squadron and 463rd Airlift Group, will test the Air Force\'s newest cargo plane, flying missions throughout Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. They are a mix of first-timers and veterans. The veterans are learning to do their jobs with new technology. Jobs once done by a crew of five are now done by three. Loadmasters now help in the flight deck as much as in the cargo bay. But it\'s not just the new plane that makes the difference for some veterans. Many are now parents and are leaving more behind. Tulley pulled a white unicorn with a sparkly horn from his flight bag as he and the other pilots waited for their ride to the plane. \"Emma Claire gave me Snowy to take with me,\" he said of his 4-year-old. Capt. Christian Garber said, \"Sydni [also 4] couldn\'t part with Jerry the Giraffe, who she sleeps with. So she gave me the Grinch.\" Capt. Dan Rees looked at a stain on the left sleeve of his flight suit and said, \"I\'m taking spit-up with me. [Noah\'s] 9-months-old.\" And then just as quickly, the stuffed animals were tucked away and talk turned back to planes and this first deployment. When talking about deploying with the J-model, Hoffer flinches at the word \"first.\" He quickly points out that the National Guard and Reserve have deployed J-models for limited amounts of time. But the book on the C-130J\'s abilities has yet to be written. The 41st squadron is expected to fill in those pages with what they learn over the coming years. \"A lot of stuff is not documented real well,\" he said. Basic protocols - such as the number of mechanics each plane requires and how it is best used in combat - have yet to be established. Most of the current operational requirements are based on an older H-model, which is a very different plane. At first glance, the J-model looks like its H- and E-model siblings, but with 15 more feet of cargo room, stronger engines, digital flight controls and glass displays. At the 41st headquarters - a bland, well-worn building sandwiched between parking lots and the flight line - a poster declares the biggest selling point of the $65 million plane: \"Out of harm\'s way faster.\" With an additional prop on each of its four Rolls Royce engines, the J-model\'s powerplant packs a bigger wallop than the E and H model\'s Pratt & Whitney engines. It can simply fly faster, farther and haul more than the models of the last three decades. The 463rd flies and deploys all three models. \"I hope to learn the ins and outs and see how it stands up to the heat,\" Rees said. \"Gremlins,\" a plane\'s quirks and hiccups, quickly surface in combat. \"I hope to learn they\'re as reliable in combat as they are at home,\" Tulley said in the hours before takeoff. Tulley built the 41st at Little Rock Air Force Base last year when it moved from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., and became the first C-130J squadron in the active Air Force. When the squadron began in April, it had one plane and 10 crew members. Now it\'s grown to five planes and it\'s personnel more than tenfold. Two of those planes are on this first deployment. \"We\'re sending them out before they\'re fully operational. We\'re sending them in early,\" Hoffer said. The number of people and planes deploying will increase over the next year as the squadron and the fleet grows. The 463rd will grow as well, gaining another squadron, and becoming the dominant unit on base with the majority of the planes and personnel. Over the next year, the 41st will gain all 16 of its C-130Js, becoming the largest C-130J squadron in the Air Force, National Guard and Reserve. In the undisclosed location where the 41st is headed, Tulley will build a new squadron - the 746th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. It will be a combination of all three models of the C-130 from active duty bases in the U.S., the Air Force Reserve and the new African Command. \"On the bright side,\" Tulley said, \"I\'m starting a new squadron up from scratch and I have a year\'s practice now.\"

The attached may help soneone else out there that is as handy capped as I am. I found it on a news group today. [file name=How_to_Understand_US_Military_Aircraft_Designations.doc size=35840]http://herkybirds.com/images/fbfiles/files/How_to_Understand_US_Military_Aircraft_Designations.doc[/file]

This attachment may help some one else out three that is as handy capped as I am. I found it today on a news group.

OK! I have a couple of questions. Just what does the M stand for in MC-130whatever and what is thier function in the big scheame of thing\'s Thank in advance.

OK! Old fart question. Just what is or are EBH\'S? :S

Bob to add to the question. What is with the fwd Cargo door on this acft? Note the oversized openings and the oplong opening above them. \"Dutch\"

:woohoo: OK! How about this? Were talking about \"The Good Old Days\". Lets see just who is the oldest one on this list. I\'ll start it off with the ripe old age of 67 soon to be 68 next month. I went in to the Air Force in Nov 1956 and was issued one peice fatiques. Any one beat that or the age?