polyvalent-Hercules.jpg

Within this simple shape 32 nations found the worlds most versatile airlifter

It carries cattle in Colombia. Bulldozers in Brazil. People in Peru. In other versions it's America's leading tactical transport: troop carrier, tanker, mapper, rescue plane, and an airship of many other missions.

Its labors are varied and immense, as befits a plane built in 45 models and named Hercules.

Some use it to hunt ice-bergs. Or seed clouds. Other models carry the commerce of industry, even pipe 20 meters long. Abroad Hercules serves as a country builder, hauling 20 tons loads to remote areas closed to other aircraft, landing on rough runways in only 640 meters. Then trucks and tractors rumble down its low ramp ready to use. Generators and portable hospitals slide out of its huge rear door. In jungle, desert and mountain areas, Hercules helps countries carve out farmlands and new cities.

Even the Antarctic is home to Hercules. There it changes wheels for skis at the flick of a switch. About the only thing this master of many missions hasn't done is land on water. But it could. The 46th model could be an amphibian.

Thus far 1200 have been built and new versions of this amazing airlifter continue to roll off Lockheed assembly lines.

Lockheed - Georgia

A Division of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation Marietta, Georgia