Posted on 05/29/2025 10:24:07 AM PDT by Pol-92064
A look at the US Military C5 Galaxy. American ingenuity at work.
I was Law Enforcement at RAF Mildenhall (SP) and had the patrol car parked near the tower on a very windy day. It was impressive watching that plane crab in for a landing…it was almost completely sideways coming in! Also flew in that when deploying from Hickam AFB for Operation DESERt STORM. Great ride, it only broke down twice on the way!
A buddy of mine was unfortunate enough to be sent to Jonestown to recover the bodies. As far as the C-5 goes I had a 26 hour flight experience from Hades on one. Imagine flying from Travis AFB CA to Goma Africa non-stop! A triple air refueling! But to make it even worse almost half the passengers were from the media and the toilet overflowed about halfway there and the stink was horrid. I remember as we taxied in the airfield and ramp was covered with people and they surrounded the aircraft when we parked.
Well that makes you the expert.
While a 2nd Lt. at Fort Hood in 1972, I was driving to the Army airbase at West Fort Hood. It was very foggy with low hanging clouds. When I drove up a hill, I could look out over the air base. There it was, the tail assembly of the C5A sticking up out of the fog/clouds. Nothing else was visible.
Uh... considering how many Pro-Russian trolls there now are on FT, I am shocked if I am the first to point out that the Russian Antonov An-124 is larger...
The AN-225... there was only one built. IT most recently was part of the Ukrainian AF, but was destroyed in the opening days of the most recent Russian war of aggression (figured the Putin fanboys would like that one).
That had to be fun, and thank you for your service.
They look slow, like they’re hanging in the air, but perception of speed to an observer relates to the number of fuselage lengths traveled in a given increment of time.
In other words, a C-5 traveling at 150 knots (a medium weight approach speed) would look like it’s traveling much slower than a small airplane, such as a fighter, traveling at the same speed.
I had the good fortune of seeing the AN-225 parked alongside a C-5 in Singapore in the early 90’s.
The six-engine AN-225 looked much bigger. No doubt about it.
Troop seats look a lot nicer than the C-141 they trucked us overseas on.
Does anybody know the C5A was nothing but an expensive boondoggle?
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The aircraft provides a useful function / capability. When you need one you need it bad.
However....
It’s a science project designed by committee....
The HF radio was crap. Why an HF radio needs a parametric amp in the receiver front end I have NO idea. Thing was installed under the rudder in unpressurized space. Changed a lot of them.
The crash recorder tape was a mess. Scatter-wound, top of the tail, 130-some screws. Changed a few.
The INS, when it worked, was accurate enough to intercept the glideslope at Frankfurt after coming across from Dover DE. When it didn’t it was done as you can’t align it while moving. Two hours to warm up, do a GC align and drift check. If it flunked you got to work. You could suck up most of a twelve hour shift getting it straightened out.
Doppler nav radar inop at altitude, except for one that got the harness rewired / replaced. It worked fine all the time.
The wing fuel pump box gasket adhesive was fuel-soluble. After a few hours fuel would start dripping on the ground from the tank vents. The cure was to apply power and flip the boost pumps on for a minute or so. “Hey wait a minute - you want power and there’s fuel spill on the ground????” Great amounts of consternation. That was kinda fun spinning up the b’crats.... And they lost every time.
The main landing gear was not very reliable at first; each had its own box of relays to sequence them up and down. That eventually got fixed but in the meanwhile we got real good at jacking them up to cycle the gear. Step One for jacking up a C-5: Drain the 60,00 pounds (yeah thirty tons) of reserve fuel. Ramp wasn’t designed for that kind of weight so had a lot of cracks where we parked them when I PCSd out.
Rhein Main AB, Frankfurt Germany, ‘73 to ‘75.
Also worked C-141s there.
Believe that entire operation has been moved down to Ramstein.
I saw a 747 parked next to a C5A at Kadena, Okinawa. Same size and the 747(like ivermectin) was much cheaper and available. .
They had ‘em in Iraq. I never got to fly on one.
Flew on C-130s, C17s and a variety of helicopters (mostly Black Hawks) but never got a ride on a C5. They looked impressive.
I wanted the job title(AFSC) of ‘aircraft loadmaster’. Loading up cargo planes.The job was filled so I got a stupid job. My buddy said that if you do just don’t get into MAC(military airlift command). They worked with the C5A’s. Just mighta dodged a bullet on that one.
**I read a book on it in the mid-70’s.
Well that makes you the expert.**
I do believe u have issues.
Those engines make a very distinctive sound when flown over you.
You jump into a thread about a classic historical military aircraft to do nothing but criticize it from ignorance.
The 747 can’t do what the C5 does. Sure it’s expensive, but nothing else can transport a CH53 or two main battle tanks around the world on no notice? It’s a capability and if you want to win battles, you invest in capabilities.
But you read a book 50 years ago, ok.
You sound troubled.
Peace be with you my brother.
You are the one deflecting. You don’t want to address your ignorant comment and your lack of knowledge on things defense related. But I’m going to guess as your home page states, you really don’t give a hoot about the things that made this country great, so long as nobody bothers you. I am at peace, thank you.
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