Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

C-130 Hercules

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a four-engine turboprop aircraft, is the workhorse of the United States military forces. Capable of landing and taking off from short, rough dirt runways, it is a people and cargo hauler and is used in a wide variety of other roles, such as gunships, weather watchers, tankers, firefighters and aerial ambulances. There are more than 40 versions of the Hercules, and it is widely used by more than 50 nations.

United States Air Force C-130 Hercules

The KC-130 tanker is equipped with a removable 136.26 hectoliter (3600 gallon) stainless steel fuel tank that is carried inside the cargo compartment providing additional fuel when required. The two wing-mounted hose and drogue aerial refueling pods each transfer up to 1135 liters (300 gallons) per minute to two aircraft simultaneously allowing for rapid cycle times of multiple-receiver aircraft formations (a typical tanker formation of four aircraft in less than 30 minutes).

Deliveries of the C-130A to the U.S. military began in December 1956 and the first B models came on board in April 1959. The B model is known as the sportscar of the fleet because it had no wing tanks and had fully boosted ailerons (3000 psi versus 2050 psi on other models). This allowed the B model to have a higher roll rate. The newest is the J model, but the H model also remains in production.

Variants of the C-130 include:

General Characteristics