Jump to content

Military C-130J vs. Commerical LM-100J


Metalbasher
 Share

Recommended Posts

Commercial C-130 Hercules: The LM-100J

By Jeff Rhodes

The LM-100J is the civil-certified version of Lockheed Martin's proven C-130J Super Hercules and is an updated version of the L-100 commercial cargo aircraft. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017.

The LM-100J looks much like its military C-130J Super Hercules counterpart. The main difference is the lack of lower windows under the windscreen, which allows the C-130J pilots to look ahead and down to see drop zones.

The first civil-certified L-100 started its career as a C-130E, and made its debut in 1964. The aircraft (Lockheed company number 3946, FAA registration N1130E) was used as a demonstrator during the One World Hercules promotional tour in 1964. The aircraft was later converted into an L-100.

Delta Air Lines operated a fleet of three L-100s and took delivery in 1966. The aircraft were later modified to the longer-fuselage L-100-20 configuration. The L-100s relaced Delta’s aging fleet of World War II-era Curtiss C-46 freighters that were used to transport maintenance crews and spare engines to repair DC-7 aircraft that had landed at remote airports and could not otherwise be serviced. The aircraft were also used to fill the air freighter and chartered outsized cargo hauling role. As Delta also began to operate the larger, wide-body 747s and L-1011s which could accommodate far more and larger freight than the narrow body aircraft they replaced, the L-100s didn't generate enough volume and revenue. The L-100 was phased out of Delta service in September 1973.

Alaska International Air was a charter freight company that was estimated to have hauled more than one million pounds of air cargo per day during construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s, pioneering heavy equipment delivery to the North Slope. This L-100, the commercial variant of the Hercules, was delivered in 1966 and was later modified with a sixty-inch fuselage extension forward of the wing and a forty-inch extension aft of the wing, and redesignated as an L-100-20. The aircraft was originally delivered to Delta Air Lines. It went through several owners and lessors and was written off after a landing accident in São Thomé in 1979. Alaska International Airways became MarkAir, which was liquidated in 1995.

Lynden Air Cargo is part of the Lynden group of transportation companies primarily serving Alaska and the Pacific Northwest with service extending throughout the US and internationally. Lynden transports everything from groceries to cars within Alaska through scheduled weekly service and oversized cargo worldwide through charter flights. Lynden Air Cargo carries materials and supplies to remote destinations in the Alaskan Bush and beyond. The company has flown relief missions after natural disasters and has supported customers in the mining, construction, and oil industries.

The L-100 has hauled a veritable managerie of animals over its career. These camels were part of a circus that was airlifted from Florida to Puerto Rico in the 1960s.

A total of 115 L-100s, the commercial variant of the C-130 Hercules airlifter, were produced from 1964 through 1992 at the then Lockheed-Georgia Company facility in Marietta, Georgia. More than fifty-five of those airlifters are still in service worldwide, being flown for civil airlift missions in places where jet aircraft operations are impractical. Here, a gorilla for the Franfurt, Germany, zoo is loaded on to an L-100, probably in the 1970s.

From the beginning of its career in the mid 1960s, the L-100 has been used to carry relief supplies to multiple countries after numerous natural disasters. After the 1964 One World Hercules demonstration tour, the Lockheed-Georgia Company L-100 was leased out and is shown here delivering relief supplies to Ethiopia circa 1966. The aircraft went through several lessors and ended up serving with the Philippine military.

In 1996, United Parcel Service leased an L-100 from Southern Air Transport and had the aircraft painted in its familiar brown, gold, and white livery. UPS donated the flight to transport Keiko, the killer whale that had gained international fame in the movie Free Willy, from an amusement park in Mexico to a rehabilitation facility in Oregon. Including Keiko, the transport container weighed 43,000 pounds.

A second possible visible external difference between the LM-100J and the C-130J is eighteen small, lightweight, strake-like devices on each side of the aircraft’s aft fuselage near the cargo ramp door and horizontal tail. These devices, called microvanes, are a way to improve fuel efficiency on a Hercules. Adding the microvanes equates to about a twenty-five gallon per hour saving. Microvanes are being looked at as a customer option on the LM-100J.

The L-100s service a very specialized market, delivering oversize cargo, such as oil and natural gas drilling equipment to short and often unimproved airfields that have no infrastructure other than maybe a forklift and a flatbed truck. In addition, L-100s are also used for humanitarian aid, airdrop, aerial spray, VIP transport, aerial firefighting, and for other, similar operations. The LM-100J, shown here in artist concept releasing retardant on a wildfire, will be able to fulfill all of these same missions.

Analysts predict that Latin America, Africa, and countries in the Middle East will see double digit growth in air freight business over the next decade. Overall, the world’s air cargo trade is expected to grow by four percent annually for at least the next several years. Even higher growth rates are predicted for niche operators. The L-100 is highly regarded for operations on dirt and/or unimproved fields or short runway and other operations at the edges of the commercial air cargo spectrum. The LM-100J, shown in artist concept landing on a dirt strip, is expected to do the same.

Engineering and detailed design of the LM-100J will be completed in 2014. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. The Dublin-based ASL Aviation Group, signed a letter of intent for up to ten LM-100Js at the at the Farnborough International Air Show in England, on 16 July 2014. The aircraft will be flown by SAFAIR, an ASL-associated company based at Johannesburg International Airport, South Africa. The external tanks shown on this LM-100J artist concept are available as a customer option.

Engineering and detailed design of the LM-100J will be completed in 2014. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. The Dublin-based ASL Aviation Group, signed a letter of intent for up to ten LM-100Js at the at the Farnborough International Air Show in England, on 16 July 2014. The aircraft will be flown by SAFAIR, an ASL-associated company based at Johannesburg International Airport, South Africa. The external tanks shown on this LM-100J artist concept are available as a customer option.

The LM-100J is the civil-certified version of Lockheed Martin's proven C-130J Super Hercules and is an updated version of the L-100 commercial cargo aircraft. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017.

From delivering food during the Biafran relief operation in Africa; to spraying dispersant on the waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster; to carrying Keiko the killer whale from a Mexican amusement park to a rehabilitation facility in Oregon, crews flying the L-100 transport have done many hard jobs in oftentimes the hardest of places.

A total of 115 L-100s, the commercial variant of the C-130 Hercules airlifter, were produced from 1964 through 1992 at the then Lockheed-Georgia Company facility in Marietta, Georgia. More than fifty-five of those airlifters are still in service worldwide used for civil airlift missions in places where jet aircraft operations are impractical.

The L-100s service a niche market, delivering oversize cargo such as oil and natural gas drilling equipment to short and often unimproved airfields that have no infrastructure other than maybe a forklift and a flatbed truck. In addition, L-100s, recognizable by the absence of the two lower windows underneath the aircraft’s windscreen, are also used for humanitarian aid, airdrop, aerial spray, VIP transport, aerial firefighting, and other, similar operations.

Analysts predict that Latin America, Africa, and Middle East countries will see double digit growth in air freight business over the next decade. Overall, the world’s air cargo trade is expected to grow by four percent annually for at least the next several years. Even higher growth rates are predicted for niche operators.

Enter the LM-100J

While the L-100 is highly regarded for operations on dirt/unimproved fields or short runway and other operations at the edges of the commercial air cargo spectrum, the existing fleet today has some operational challenges.

The first is Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management, or CNS/ATM, compliance. CNS/ATM is the evolving group of systems and regulations used to provide air traffic control services over large geographical areas, including large sections of oceanic airspace. The avionics in the existing L-100s will have to be retrofitted to accommodate the CNS/ATM regulations.

Second, the Allison (now Rolls-Royce) T56 engines powering the L-100 fleet don’t meet the FAA’s Stage IV noise requirements for civilian transports because of the engine-propeller combination, nor do these engines meet today’s more stringent emission standards.

Even more than passenger airlines, air cargo operations operate on razor-thin profit margins. The twenty-to-forty year old L-100s do have higher direct operating cost relative to the ex-Soviet-bloc An-12 transports operating in many parts of the world, as well as the ubiquitous 737 airliner, many of which have been converted to freighters. However, the 737s need special cargo ground-handling equipment, which adds cost and time and are limited in areas where the Hercules operates most effectively.

To respond to these challenges, Lockheed Martin officials submitted a Program Notification Letter to the Federal Aviation Administration on 21 January 2014 for a type design update for the Model L-382J transport, a civil-certified variant of the C-130J Super Hercules. This commercial variant will be marketed as the LM-100J.

What’s There

The LM-100J looks much like its military C-130J Super Hercules counterpart. The main exterior difference is the lack of lower windows under the windscreen, which allow the C-130J pilots to look ahead and down to see drop zones. The new airlifter has the same Dowty R391 propellers with six scimitar-shaped composite blades and a black de-icer boot at the base of the vertical fin.

Internally, the LM-100J, like the C-130J, features an Enhanced Service Life, or ESL, center wing box, enhanced icing protection, and the numerous reliability and maintainability improvements that are a part of the basic C-130J design.

The LM-100J uses the same Rolls-Royce AE2100D3 engines as the C-130J. These engines, rated at approximately 4,637 shaft horsepower each, or roughly 150 more horsepower than the legacy T56 engines, feature a full-authority digital engine controller, or FADEC. The engines are expected to exceed FAA Stage IV standards, so there is significantly less fly-over noise with an LM-100J than with an L-100.

The LM-100J has the same automatic engine thrust control system as the C-130J.This system automatically adjusts for asymmetric thrust conditions—in other words, if one engine loses power, the other engines automatically compensate to keep the aircraft flying safely.

The Northrop Grumman low-power color weather and ground-mapping radar data is presented to the two-pilot flight crew on any of the four head-down color displays on the flight deck. All primary flight information, including altitude, heading, and airspeed is presented on two see-through head-up displays in the crew’s field of view. The LM-100J, through the digital autopilot/flight director can take the aircraft down to Category II minimums, generally considered 100 feet decision height for landing with 1,200-foot visibility.

On the flight deck, the LM-100J will have a microwave oven, like on the C-130J. However, inclusion of a coffee maker is a customer option.

What It Doesn’t Have

On a commercial air freighter, any equipment that doesn’t need to be on the aircraft is extra weight that can be eliminated. Less aircraft weight means fuel saved. Less equipment equals less complexity and reduced maintenance time. That’s why nearly all of the military-specific hardware found on a C-130J has been removed or disabled on the LM-100J. Some military-specific software functions, such as a computer-aided release point, or CARP, for airdrops is retained, however.

In the cargo compartment, the LM-100J has an unobstructed, flat floor with tiedowns and provisions for roller racks for palletized cargo. There are no litter stanchions for casualty evacuation, as casualties are usually evacuated on military transports or dedicated civilian aircraft. The flush toilet has also been removed because it takes up space and adds weight and most LM-100J flights are relatively short.

The LM-100J will have fuselage doors at the rear of the aircraft, but these doors won't be operated like the paratroop doors on the C-130J. The paratroop air deflectors mounted ahead of the doors on the LM-100J are deactivated simply because they’re not needed, and the engineering cost to remove them completely would be substantial.

Every C-130J includes provisions for defensive systems such as chaff and flare dispensers, which are not needed for a commercial transport in nearly every case. Secure communications and electronic warfare equipment, racks, and wiring are all eliminated.

Rather than a complex liquid oxygen tank and the associated ground servicing equipment, the LM-100J crew will use a simpler gaseous oxygen system with two walk-around oxygen bottles for emergencies.

Crews flying the LM-100J will generally fly single-ship operations, so the low-voltage formation lights on the C-130J aren’t installed, as is the Station Keeping Equipment, or SKE, which is necessary for formation airdrops with the C-130J.

What It Does (Or May) Have

At the back of the aircraft are external controls to open the cargo door and lower the ramp to reduce time on the ground and to allow for maximum loading capacity.

Internally, the LM-100J crew will be separated from the cargo compartment by a door, unlike on the C-130J which simply has a cutout in what is called the 245 bulkhead (i.e. 245 inches from the nose). The LM-100J will likely have a cargo net able to withstand 9-g force, so it can contain almost anything. The aircraft will also have provisions for widely used commercial cargo handling systems.

Rather than sound-deadening and temperature-controlling insulation blankets used on C-130s, the LM-100J will have a hard liner that is essentially like a bedliner in a pickup truck—able to withstand repeated bumps and scrapes without requiring regular repair or maintenance.

The LM-100J avionics system includes a commercial Traffic Collision Alert System; the latest-generation CNS/ATM equipment and software; commercial takeoff and landing data; and GPS position data reported to the aircraft’s emergency locator transmitter, so if there is an accident, the system sends out exact coordinates to rescue crews.

Structurally, the LM-100J will have reinforced bird strike plates around the windscreen and a commercial standard, bird-resistant windscreen. Externally, the LM-100J will have an INMARSAT radio and commercial GPS antenna on the top of the fuselage.

For nearly every commercial flight, the crew will know in advance whether their cargo for the day is steel pipe, bags of grain, or a truck, and whether they need rollers or a flat floor. The Enhanced Cargo Handling System, or ECHS, in the C-130J allows crews to rapidly change from rollers to tie downs. However, the flip-over roller trays do add some weight. Although the ECHS is not a part of the original baseline LM-100J design, it may still be offered as a customer option.

With aircraft, drag is a bad thing. Lift and thrust have to overcome gravity and drag for an aircraft to fly. A possible second visible external difference between the LM-100J and the C-130J seems to be counterintuitive: installing eighteen small, lightweight, strake-like devices called microvanes on each side of the aircraft’s aft fuselage near the cargo ramp door and horizontal tail.

These roughly ten-inch-long vanes create minimal localized drag. However, working as a group, the microvanes slow the natural, much larger drag-creating vortex that forms as airflow goes over and under the wing and swirls around the aft end of the aircraft. The net result is a fifteen-count reduction in drag at long range cruise speeds, which equates to about a twenty-five gallon per hour saving. Microvanes are being looked as a customer option on the LM-100J

On The Ramp

Time and payload equal money to air freight operations. Anything that puts more cargo in an aircraft and gets that payload it to its destination faster means more money in an operator’s pocket. All of the features of the LM-100J result in a civil-certified transport that will carry one-third more payload, with twenty percent or more greater range, and at ten percent faster speeds than the L-100.

As a practical mission example, a crew flying an L-100 with a max normal gross takeoff weight of 155,000 pounds and a 35,000 pound payload will cruise at 18,000 feet at a speed of 280 knots.

The crew in the LM-100J with a 35,000 pound payload will take off at a max normal gross takeoff weight of 164,000 pounds; reach a cruising altitude of 28,000 feet, where the engines are more efficient, in less time than it took the L-100 crew to reach 18,000 feet; and fly at 310 knots.

Hugh Flynn, the chief executive of the Dublin, Ireland-based ASL Aviation Group, signed a letter of intent for up to ten LM-100Js at the at the Farnborough International Air Show in England, on 16 July 2014. The aircraft will be flown by SAFAIR, an ASL-associated company based at Johannesburg International Airport, South Africa and Air Contractors, also located in Dublin. SAFAIR currently operates a fleet of six long fuselage L-100-30 aircraft. Air Contractors currently operates one L-100 under the Oil Spill Response, Ltd., brand.

Engineering and detailed design of the LM-100J is currently underway. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. Because much of the flight test done to civil certify the C-130J in the late 1990s will be directly applicable to the LM-100J, testing and certification of the newest Hercules variant is expected to take about twelve months.

The LM-100J is expected to start earning its keep for commercial operators shortly after the certification process is completed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Half way nice article about the Super Herks but nowhere did the article expound on the L-100-30 nor the C-130J-30 which IS the Super Herk. They spoke of the old L-100 and the L-100-20 "short stretch" but not the -30 which has the 100 inch plug fwd of the wing and the 80 inch plug aft of the wing. Except for the fancy J stuff they spoke of, half of what the "Super Herk" is all about was left out of the article. Just my thoughts. :) Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought it was a good overview of the major differences between the mil and civil C-130J versions. As I recall from previous articles, the LM-100J is based on the stretched C-130J-30 since that was the basis of the original L382J civil cert in the 90's. Articles and press releases tend to use "C-130J Super Hercules" as an all-inclusive term for the "C-130J" family of aircraft unless they are referring to a particular variant or customer (USMC = KC-130J, USCG = HC-130J, etc.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lockheed called the H-2 the Super Hercules way back when we got them new from the factory in Nov 1982. My point was the writer danced all around the length of the -30 and LM-100J but stated the length of the plugs in the L-100-20. For Herk nuts most probably know the difference but for the vast majority of people reading the article the greater length of the fuselage on the -30 in inches or feet was not stated but that it carried 1/3 more payload. Is that in pounds or cubic feet? It don't say. Remember Lockheed stretched the C-141 to gain more cubic feet of space because we would cube out before we grossed the airplane out on most flights. Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...