C130 Aircraft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

C130 Aircraft - Essay Example The C-130 Aircraft also known as the Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine aircraft build by Lockheed during the 1950s. It is been serving since many years as a transport aircraft for military. This aircraft was originally developed as an assault transport. This was later used for a variety of missions such as: The C-130 aircraft is capable of traveling through rough, dirt strips. It is the basic mean of transport where paratroop and dropping of equipment is concerned for hostile regions all around the globe. It is the only aircraft that is in a process of continuous production for more than 50 years and have been participating in a huge number of missions of aid for humanity, military and civilian. With its original primary customer it has became the fifth most continuously used aircraft in the history, the first being the English Electric Canberra. (Posner, 2000, p. 1) The transports that were earlier used at the time of Korean World War II in June 1950 were C-119 Flying Boxcars, C-47 Sky trains and C-46 Commandos. However these were proved to be inadequate and insufficient to perform to the fullest and for a variety of purposes. After this realization, on February 02, 1951, the air force of the United States of America put forward a General Operating Requirement for a new transport. This requirement was introduced to a number of companies including: 1. Lockheed. 2. Martin. 3. Chase Aircraft. 4. Fairchild. 5. Douglas. 6. Northrop. 7. North American. 8. Boeing. 9. Airlifts Inc. (Stokes, 2000, p. 2) This new transport was required to have a capacity 92 passengers, also of 72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers. The range was required to be of 1300 miles and 2000 kilometers. Also it should be able to work well while having one of its engines turned off. Out of these companies only placed the tender of an accumulated number of ten designs for the required specifications including: 1. Boeing proposed one, 2. Lockheed proposed two, 3. Douglas proposed three, 4. Airlifts proposed one, and 5. Chase Aircraft proposed to design three under the specification The Lockheed design was developed and headed by Willis Hawkins. This was a proposal of 130 pages. There was close competition between the design proposals of Lockheed and that of Douglas. (Stokes, 2000, p. 3) The company won the contract on July 02, 1951 and was signed by the Company's Vice President and Chief Engineer Hall Hibbard. The first flight of the newly built YC-130 was carried out on August 23, 1954 from Burbank, California. This aircraft was piloted by Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer. Then later on the production of C-130 begins. It was started to being produced in Marietta Georgia. More than 2300 of C-130 were built at that time. Deliveries of the said started in December 1956. (Neely, 2000, p. 4) SPECIFICATIONS AND COST OF C-130 AIRCRAFT: The aircraft power plant includes Four Allison T56-A-15 turboprops, 4300 horsepower, each engine. The weight of the empty