C-130 Fuselage at PA rest stop....
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- Joined: 26 Apr 2009, 20:07
- Location: South Central USA
Anyone know anything about this air-frame? It has some odd air frame mods, some look like the MC-130 rocket mods for the failed Operation Eagle Claw.
https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/i-gue ... 1827304608
https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/i-gue ... 1827304608
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The aircraft is YMC-130H # 74-1686 (c/n 4669) is one of three aircraft originally modified for Project Credible Sport, using a myriad of rocket motors to increase take off and landing space requirements. The first aircraft (#74-1683) crashed and burned during testing, thus ending the project. The second aircraft (#74-2065) was de-modded and returned to service (still flying today in the ANG) and the third aircraft was left in its modified condition (as seen in the photos) and used for other testing at Robins AFB until approximately 1983. In 1988, it was then transferred to the Robins AFB Museum of Aviation and was put on display as it was and never refurbished. A few years ago the museum was adjusting their museum fleet and determine this aircraft to be excess and of no significant value. Even though modded for Credible Sport, it never flew a mission, therefor lacked the historic significance. They tried to give it away to another museum but due the size of the aircraft and deterioration and cost of relocating it, there were no interested parties. The museum worked with military to relocate it out of sight and eventually had the center wing box removed along with outboard wings etc. Recently a museum in NY opted to provide a home to this aircraft and made arrangements for transportation of it to their location. The aircraft (as pictured in the photo) left Robins AFB GA, 26 Jun 2018 bound for NY.
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This project , at the time ,was a very high level and highly classified . I was kept aware of the status and viewed test flight films. I flew the airplane LAC 4669 , AF 74-1686 before mod for a production test flight at Lockheed , then later at Lake City as an FCF following PDM. At those times it was just another standard FY '74 H . The FY '74 H production included many lessons learned at Lockheed production , WRALC and the PDM Contractors making the FY' 74 H a new standard.
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Fuselage of historic rocket plane arrives in Glenville
6 July 2018
The fuselage of a rocket-boosted plane that was designed to rescue Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis arrived just in the nick of time Friday evening at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville, part of a piece-by-piece transfer of the historically significant craft from Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.
The truck carrying the fuselage experienced difficulties on its journey. After getting hung up by a traffic light on Route 155 in Guilderland at about 1 p.m., it had to park on the roadside for hours because its permit did not allow for transport during rush hour between 4 and 6 p.m. The truck then moved swiftly to make it to the museum before sundown, as the same permit did not allow travel after dark.
The truck and its State Police escorts arrived at the Schenectady County Airport moments after the sun set Friday evening.
The Lockheed YMC130H, which took part in the secret operation code-named Credible Sport, “was made to land in a soccer field – to land in 600 feet and take off in 600 feet, with a full load. And it was built to rescue the hostages in Iran in 1980,” said Dan Wilson, acquisitions officer at the museum and project director of the plane’s transfer.
The military-transport aircraft was one of three C-130’s retrofitted — with rocket engines and aerodynamic modifications allowing abrupt arrivals and departures — to aid the American hostages, who were held for 444 days after students supporting the Iranian Revolution seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The remaining two were no longer needed when the hostages were released moments after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in January of 1981, and one was stripped of its retrofitting and returned to regular service. The other, which arrived Friday in Glenville, has spent the ensuing years at Robins Air Force Base, which has donated it to the Glenville museum.
“This is the most historic aircraft we ever got, and we’re honored to get it,” Wilson said.
The plane will be reassembled this September by a team from Robins Air Force Base, he said, adding that the museum hopes to obtain assistance in its subsequent renovation from the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard, stationed at the Stratton base in Schenectady.
Three tractor-trailers delivered the airplane’s wings and tail last week, Wilson said. The 97-foot-long fuselage arrived on a fourth Friday, with two more trucks coming in future weeks: one carrying four engines, the other carrying propellers.
He estimates “six to eight months” of painting and renovation – to give it “a totally authentic” look adhering to the original specifications -- before the plane is put on display at the Aerosciences Museum.
Its rockets will not be demonstrated live for visitors.
“Uh, no,” Wilson said.
6 July 2018
The fuselage of a rocket-boosted plane that was designed to rescue Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis arrived just in the nick of time Friday evening at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville, part of a piece-by-piece transfer of the historically significant craft from Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.
The truck carrying the fuselage experienced difficulties on its journey. After getting hung up by a traffic light on Route 155 in Guilderland at about 1 p.m., it had to park on the roadside for hours because its permit did not allow for transport during rush hour between 4 and 6 p.m. The truck then moved swiftly to make it to the museum before sundown, as the same permit did not allow travel after dark.
The truck and its State Police escorts arrived at the Schenectady County Airport moments after the sun set Friday evening.
The Lockheed YMC130H, which took part in the secret operation code-named Credible Sport, “was made to land in a soccer field – to land in 600 feet and take off in 600 feet, with a full load. And it was built to rescue the hostages in Iran in 1980,” said Dan Wilson, acquisitions officer at the museum and project director of the plane’s transfer.
The military-transport aircraft was one of three C-130’s retrofitted — with rocket engines and aerodynamic modifications allowing abrupt arrivals and departures — to aid the American hostages, who were held for 444 days after students supporting the Iranian Revolution seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The remaining two were no longer needed when the hostages were released moments after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in January of 1981, and one was stripped of its retrofitting and returned to regular service. The other, which arrived Friday in Glenville, has spent the ensuing years at Robins Air Force Base, which has donated it to the Glenville museum.
“This is the most historic aircraft we ever got, and we’re honored to get it,” Wilson said.
The plane will be reassembled this September by a team from Robins Air Force Base, he said, adding that the museum hopes to obtain assistance in its subsequent renovation from the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard, stationed at the Stratton base in Schenectady.
Three tractor-trailers delivered the airplane’s wings and tail last week, Wilson said. The 97-foot-long fuselage arrived on a fourth Friday, with two more trucks coming in future weeks: one carrying four engines, the other carrying propellers.
He estimates “six to eight months” of painting and renovation – to give it “a totally authentic” look adhering to the original specifications -- before the plane is put on display at the Aerosciences Museum.
Its rockets will not be demonstrated live for visitors.
“Uh, no,” Wilson said.
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