[Jack Deth]

There are two planes in the AF Inventory that just cannot be killed and never seem to die.

The BUFF: "When You want something over 40... And experienced!"

And the A-10 Warthog: The Grunts' Best Friend.

Jack.

[Lokibob]

I had forgotten about the voodoo.

A couple of years ago (lol, it has to be 6 or more now) I had the opportunity to tour the C-130 J model the day it went from "experimental" to an actual C-130 type. The thing had a glass cockpit, weighed the load as it came aboard, 4- 6 bladed props with de-tuned Allison engines. The engines were so powerful that if fully tuned, they would have turned the wings to pretzels.

Here we were, out in the middle of the Utah desert, doing some short field testing of the plane, when word came from the factory that it had been accepted as an operational aircraft. The crew brought out the OD paint, and covered the word "EXPERMINTAL" over the cabin door. At that time, McDonald Douglas had not sold even one of them (J Model).