Does anybody know the C5A was nothing but an expensive boondoggle? I read a book on it in the mid-70’s. A whistleblower named Fitzgerald was transferred to run bowling alleys in Thailand. Converted 747’s would have been a lot cheaper. I’m talking DOGE stuff. The one military application was the front end opened up making it load up faster from both ends. It may have come in handy during the ‘73 Yom Kipper war. Anyone who served can remember being on a higher alert. A big waste of taxpayer money.
Well that makes you the expert.
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.