Posted on 03/24/2009 12:27:34 PM PDT by lizol
Poland gets 1st of 5 Hercules planes from US
Associated Press 2009-03-24 09:21 PM
Poland's air force has received the first of five used C-130E Hercules transport planes from the U.S. to improve its large-scale transport capabilities.
The Hercules arrived at the Powidz air base in western Poland on Tuesday following an overhaul in the U.S. and a stopover at a U.S. air base in Germany.
All five planes will arrive by the summer of 2010 to improve Poland's capabilities to transport troops, equipment and humanitarian aid domestically as well as to foreign missions such as the one in Afghanistan.
The purchase was financed with help from a U.S. program that provides grants and loans to allies buying military equipment to improve their defense capabilities.
Greetings FRiend!
The C-130 has to be the most successful plane the US ever developed. I’m sure y’all will put them to good use.
Any aerodynamics people wanna comment on the thinking behind propellers -vs- jet engines for these heavy lift vehicles?
God bless our Polish friends!
The venerable Herkie Bird, built right here in Marietta. Spent a lot of time in that plant when selling Lockheed many overhead cranes.
Thats hardly a substitute for stiffing them on the missile defense system, and those are the old model Hercs too.
The only bad thing about this is, that these five are 40-years old, renovated aircrafts.
A bit old, I’d say.
Are they going to be operative long enough?
Are they Spruce Geese? Howard Hughes would be pleased to have these fine planes named after his.
This is not Obama’s idea.
This deal has been agreed couple of years ago.
Prop-Jets only burn half as much fuel as jets
Also, there’s an urban legend that during the Vietnam War, a Hercules pilot got tired of the fighter jocks doing victory rolls over the airfield, so he did one in his Hercules.
Can anybody confirm this?
‘Any aerodynamics people wanna comment on the thinking behind propellers -vs- jet engines for these heavy lift vehicles?’
Like we used to tell our Turboprop students,when they let it be known that Jet Mech was their 1st choice, jets suck and blow but turboprops screw their way around the world. C-130’s forever!
The test pilot did a roll with a Boeing 707.
They should have given them the C-130J Super Hercules.
Turboprops have much better acceleration from a dead stop than jet engines; they can be spooled up to full power almost immediately, while jet engines don’t deliver full power until they are moving. This allows the Herc to take off from airstrips that are too short for a jet.
I flew on these wonderful birds as part of the weapons system crew (EC-130H Compass Call). I hope Poland finds them as useful as we have. Them suckers’ll fly on one engine (unless your cargo bay is full of heavy equipment that is bolted to the floor, then you’d like to have at least two - thankfully, we were close to home).
Not an aerodynamics person, but I have been in situations where "reverse" was needed. Ever see a C-130 parallel park? - I have, from the inside ;-).
A friend of mine (who was a senior 747 pilot for some years) pointed out that unlike a jet, a turboprop plane like this generates part of its own lift simply by the fact that the props are blowing air back over the wings and generating their own lift. Helps to explain their remarkable capabilities.
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