adding-two-plugs.jpg

Lockheed

keeps plugging away

at a great product.

It all began with the basic Hercules, the first big modern airlifter. Then the airlift experts at Lockheed made it into a tanker, a search-rescue plane, drone launcher, forest fire freighter and into other versions.

They converted Hercules into a commercial cargo plane and then stretched its fuselage more than eight feet with two plugs shown above. And then they stretched it again by seven more feet.

Now they want to build on success and add two plugs to the fuselage on the military version of Hercules to increase its payload. And they plan on adding two other key features – the ability to use runways as short as 2000 feet while carrying big payloads and in-flight refueling to give it worldwide range.

The result: virtually a new plan but one that costs hundreds of millions less than designing and building a new one from scratch.

Herc’s remarkable adaptability explains why 43 nations and many airlines have chosen versions of this plane. Why pay to invent an entirely new plane when you can get a new version of a great plane for millions less.

Hercules. It just keeps getting better and better

Lockheed Hercules