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Airlifting around the world

Flying

the Andes

to build a sugar mill.

Bolivia's first C-130 Hercules had little rest after its arrival in La Paz. Almost immediately, it took off to help construct a sugar mill on the other side of the Andes Mountains.

For 17 days, it made daily flights from La Paz airport, over mountain summits 6/2 kilometres high, and to a short, unpaved landing strip near sea level in the Amazon Basin. Its cargo was more than 227, 000 kilograms of trucks and earth-moving equipment.

Throughout the operation, the Hercules performed without a hitch. And it easily made take-offs and landings on the rough, inland runway. Being employed for the first time in Bolivia, the aircraft again showed Why it is used around the world to develop resources.

Niger buys some flying trucks

Niger, with much of its vast interior lying in the Sahara Desert, has become the 44th nation - the fifth in West Africa - to choose the rugged C-130 Hercules.

Niger Air Force personnel will be trained at Lockheed to operate and maintain the versatile cargo planes. And the first of two Hercules aircraft will be delivered to Niamey, Niger's capital, in September 1979.

Hercules is the ideal transport for helping Niger develop its natural resources. That's because this versatile plane works easily in remote areas, using runways of sand or grass as short as 1,220 metres.

Putting wings on a transmigration programme

Indonesia's island of Java, about the size of Greece, is crowded - 80 million people and a high birthrate. But the island of Sumatra, 966 kilometres away has fertile, uninhabited land.

So Indonesia decided to move large numbers of farm families to Sumatra. At first the move was traumatic, because of transit camps, a sea trip lasting a week, and an awkward journey into the Sumatra interior.

But the Hercules has changed all that.  Indonesia recently purchased three L-100-30  Super Hercules transports to continue this transmigration programme.

Now, villagers and their possessions can board a Hercules at an airport in Jakarta, lava. In two hours, they can be flown in air-conditioned comfort to points near the new villages. And they can be in their new free homes, each on two hectares of rich land, the same day that they left Java.

Lockheed - another word for airlift

Built by Lockheed, the world's most versatile transport family includes 45 versions of the hard-working Hercules; the United States Air Force C-141 longrange jet; and the world's biggest plane, the giant C-5, unmatched in capability and performance. They're built by the people who know more about airlifting than anyone else.

Lockheed