As it turned out, the Navy was amazed to find they were able to better this mark by a substantial margin. “The big worry was whether we could meet the maximum sink rate of nine feet per second,” Flatley said. Lockheed’s only modifications to the original plane included installing a smaller nose-landing gear orifice, an improved anti-skid braking system, and removal of the underwing refueling pods. The aircraft, a KC-130F refueler transport (BuNo 149798), on loan from the U.S. In so doing, the airplane became the largest and heaviest aircraft to ever land on an aircraft carrier, a record that stands to this day. Not only was it possible, it was done in moderately rough seas 500 miles out in the North Atlantic off the coast of Boston. Was it possible? Who would believe that the big, four-engine C-130 with its bulky fuselage and 132-foot wing span could land on the deck of a carrier? The C-130 has the longest, continuous military aircraft production run in history and one of the top three longest, continuous aircraft production lines of any type.Īs told by Joseph Earl Dabney in his book Herk: Hero of the Skies, when one reviews the encyclopedic range of accomplishments by the C-130 Hercules and its valiant aircrews over the years, surely one of the most astounding took place in October 1963 when the US Navy decided to try to land a Hercules on an aircraft carrier. Some models are flown as commercial transports. The Hercules has been used to drop bombs, retrieve satellites in midair, conduct reconnaissance and attack ground targets with cannons. Aircrews have flown it to both poles, landed or airdropped military supplies to hot spots from Vietnam to Afghanistan and performed countless relief operations around the globe. Since its first flight in 1954, the Hercules has been everywhere and done just about anything. It can be said without fear of contradiction that the C-130 Hercules is one of the most important aircraft in aviation history. There on the side of the fuselage, a big sign had been painted on that said, “LOOK MA, NO HOOK,” Art E. “The airplane stopped right opposite the captain’s bridge.

C130 cockpit