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Towards the end of the Korean War, the USAF came to the realization that their transport fleet was becoming obsolete. The C-46 Commandos and C-47 Skytrains in service were no longer adequate, while the C-119 Flying Boxcar was having difficulties. In 1951, the USAF issued a requirement for a new tactical transport, an aircraft that would need to carry at least 72 passengers, be capable of dropping paratroopers, and have a ramp for loading vehicles directly into the cargo compartment. Moreover, it must be a “clean sheet” design, not a conversion from an existing airliner, and the USAF preferred it be a turboprop design. Five companies submitted designs, and six months later the USAF chose Lockheed’s L-402 design—over the misgivings of Lockheed’s chief designer, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, who warned that the L-402 would destroy the company. Little was Johnson to know that, fifty years later, the L-402—designated C-130 Hercules by the USAF—would still be in production, and one out of only five aircraft to have over 50 years of service with the original purchaser.
The C-130 was designed to give mostly unfettered access to a large cargo compartment—the ramp forms an integral part of the rear fuselage, the wing is mounted above the fuselage, and the landing gear is carried in sponsons attached to the fuselage itself, while the fuselage has a circular design to maximize loading potential. The high wing also gives the C-130 good lift, especially in “high and hot” situations. The Allison T56 turboprop was designed specifically for the Hercules, and has gone on to become one of the most successful turboprop designs in history.
After two YC-130 prototypes, the Hercules went into production as the C-130A in 1956, to be superseded by the improved C-130B in 1959. The latter became the baseline Hercules variant: C-130As had three-blade propellers and a rounded “Roman” nose, while the B introduced the more familiar, longer radar nose and four-blade propellers. (Virtually all A models were later retrofitted to the long nose, though they kept the three-blade propellers.) In the 50 years hence, the basic C-130 design has not changed much: the C-130E introduced underwing external fuel tanks, while the C-130H has a slightly different wing. Even the new C-130J variant only introduced new engines with more fuel efficient six-bladed propellers: the basic design remains the same. Lockheed also offers stretched versions of the Hercules, initially as a civilian-only option (the L-100-30); the British Royal Air Force bought this version as the C-130K and it was later adopted by other nations, including the United States.
The basic C-130 is strictly a transport aircraft, but the versatility of the aircraft has meant it has been modified into a dizzying number of variants. These include the AC-130 Spectre gunship, the HC-130 rescue aircraft and WC-130 weather reconnaissance version. Other versions include several dozen EC-130 electronic warfare/Elint variants, KC-130 tankers, and DC-130 drone aircraft controllers. The USAF, the US Navy, and the US Marine Corps are all C-130 operators as well. Besides the United States, there are 67 other operators of C-130s, making it one of the world’s most prolific aircraft, with its only rivals the Bell UH-1 Iroquois family and the Antonov An-2 Colt biplane transport. C-130s are also used extensively by civilian operators as well as the L-100 series.
The “Herky Bird,” as it is often nicknamed, has participated in every military campaign fought by the United States since 1960 in one variation or the other. During Vietnam, it was used in almost every role imaginable, from standard transport to emergency bomber: as the latter, it dropped M121 10,000 pound mass-focus bombs to clear jungle away for helicopter landing zones, and it was even attempted to use C-130s with these bombs against the infamous Thanh Hoa Bridge in North Vietnam. (Later this capability was added as standard to MC-130 Combat Talon special forces support aircraft; the MC-130 is the only aircraft cleared to carry the GBU-43 MOAB.) It was also instrumental in resupplying the Khe Sanh garrison during its three-month siege. Hercules crews paid the price as well: nearly 70 C-130s were lost during the Vietnam War. In foreign service, C-130s have also been used heavily, the most famous instance of which was likely the Israeli Entebbe Raid of 1976, one of the longest-ranged C-130 missions in history. C-130s are often in the forefront of humanitarian missions to trouble spots around the world, most recently in the 2011 Sendai earthquake disaster in Japan.
As of this writing, over 2300 C-130s have been built, and most are still in service. It remains the backbone of the USAF’s tactical transport service; attempts to replace it with the Advanced Tactical Transport Program (ATTP) in the 1980s and to supplement it with the C-27J Spartan in the 2000s both failed, as the USAF realized that the only real replacement for a C-130 is another C-130.
The RAF began buying C-130s in the early 1970s to replace a plethora of heavy transports, such as the Armstrong-Whitworth Argosy and Bristol Beverley. Though designated C-130K by Lockheed, the RAF called them Hercules C.1. The RAF was among the first to order the stretched L-100-30 as the Hercules C.3, though these were also referred to as C-130Ks.
XV218, shown here, was a standard (non-stretched) Hercules C.1; it is somewhat anonymous, but was probably assigned to 47 Squadron at RAF Lyneham, UK. It arrived at Sembach AB, West Germany, at the 1980 airshow to provide mission support for the Red Arrows. XV218 shows off standard RAF camouflage of dark gray and dark green at the time, with light gray undersides.
XV218 later received an air refueling probe and served in the Falklands War of 1982. It was retired in favor of the Hercules C.4 (C-130J) sometime around 2005, and was later scrapped.
Dress: Jomo - Chinese Court Costume (free from lucky board)
Hairdo: Tableau Vivant - Gloster
Skin: Belleza - Aiko in pale
By the beginning of the 1970s, the nations of Western Europe had come to the realization that a dedicated strike aircraft was desperately needed. Most of NATO was depending on the F-104G Starfighter as their primary interdiction and strike aircraft, while France had only aging Mysteres and modified Mirage IIIs. The United Kingdom did not even have that: the promising TSR.2 had been cancelled, as had a British version of the F-111 Aardvark. Moreover, the UK also lacked an interceptor, relying on the outdated Lightning F.6. Finally, as the emerging European Common Market (the forerunner of the European Union) sought to distance itself from the United States, Western Europe desired an aircraft designed by Europeans for Europeans, rather than depending on American designs.
All parties agreed that the new Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) should be a twin-engined dedicated strike aircraft, with variable-sweep wings that would allow it high dash speed at low-level to the target, yet allow it to operate from short runways or semi-improved fields. Political infighting over who would lead the MRCA project led France to withdraw from the program, followed by Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands, leaving just West Germany, Britain, and Italy by 1971. Production of the MRCA would be divided between Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Bohm (MBB) of Germany, the British Aircraft Company (BAC) of the UK, and Fiat of Italy, under the umbrella of Panavia; the engines would similarly be produced by all three nations, with Britain’s Rolls-Royce in the lead, as Turbo-Union. Though Germany preferred a single-seat aircraft and the UK wanted an interceptor, the nations agreed to a two-seat aircraft to lessen the pressure on the pilot, while the MRCA would also be developed as an interceptor to satisfy the British requirement. The emphasis, however, was on the immediate development of a strike aircraft.
With the finalization of the aircraft design, what became the Panavia Tornado came together relatively quickly, with the first prototype flight in August 1974. Testing also went smoothly: the loss of two prototypes to crashes was traced to problems with the variable-flow intakes and the thrust reverser, which had been added to the design to improve its short-field landing performance. The strike version, designated Tornado IDS (Interdiction/Strike) for Germany and Italy, and Tornado GR.1 for Britain, entered service in 1979. Despite the hopes of the Panavia partners, the Tornado was never an export success, with only Saudi Arabia purchasing the aircraft: the F-16 and Mirage F.1 were cheaper alternatives, with more weapons options and less mechanically complex.
The Tornado IDS nonetheless proved to be a superb aircraft, with excellent handling in all flight profiles, and open to continual improvement. After the success of the American Wild Weasel program, Germany and Italy opted for a further development of the Tornado IDS to a dedicated anti-SAM aircraft, the Tornado ECR (Electronic Countermeasures/Reconnaissance).
The Tornado would never be called on to fight a war in Central Europe against the Soviet Union, which it had been designed to do. Instead, its first combat would come in the deserts of Iraq in the First Gulf War. RAF Tornados were tasked specifically with runway interdiction of Iraqi airfields—tactics that had been practiced often in anticipation of a Third World War. The result was near-disastrous: Iraqi antiaircraft fire accounted for three Tornados in as many days, as RAF pilots had trained to use terrain avoidance in Europe to mask them from ground fire; in Iraq, there was no terrain to hide behind. This forced the Tornado force to medium altitudes and freefall bombs only, as the Tornado IDS/GR.1 lacked the ability to launch precision-guided munitions.
The Tornado has since done better. Continually improved to carry a wide variety of weaponry, including the ALARM antiradar missile, Brimstone antitank missile, Kormoran and Sea Eagle antiship missiles, and American-built JDAMs, Tornados from Germany, Italy, and the UK have participated in wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. In Afghanistan, German Tornado ECRs have been invaluable using their onboard sensors to detect improvised explosive devices, while Italian Tornado IDS and RAF Tornado GR.4s essentially grounded the Libyan Air Force in the first days of the conflict by hitting runways and hangars; RAF Tornados flew from bases in the UK to Libya in the longest missions since the 1982 Falklands conflict. RAF, Luftwaffe, and AMI Tornado IDS/GR.4s will remain in service until at least 2025, to be replaced by either more Typhoons or the F-35 Lightning II. With 992 Tornados produced, the aircraft has easily been the most successful European aircraft built since World War II.
When one of the members of the local game club passed away in 2010, he left behind a fairly large collection of GHQ Miniatures, meant for tabletop wargaming. His collection was mostly unpainted, so I got permission to go ahead and finish them. This Tornado IDS is painted as a German Marineflieger Tornado, optimized for the antiship role: two AS.34 Komoran antiship missiles are carried beneath the wings, along with two ECM pods (I think; at this scale, it's hard to tell). No markings were included, since these minis were long out of the box, so I handpainted some German markings. This is the 1990s-era Marineflieger camouflage, with wraparound two shades of dark gray.
It turned out well enough, considering the tiny scale: the GHQ aircraft are made in 1/285 scale so that they're the same size as the company's vehicles.
... I was sitting on my back porch, observing that holiest of rituals ... Saturday morning. For me all is well on a Saturday morning if I can start it sitting on my back porch looking over a cup of coffee at my flowers, tomato and basil plants, occasionally observing the blue sky through the green cover of the now full-leaved oaks and poplars that line the back boundary behind my apartment. Distracted only occasionally as a squirrel chides a cat from the neighboring yard, tail twitching in time like a rodent-metronome. From the stereo in the living room NPR provides the background entertainment.
It was a week after my latest experience with the Ukranian couple selling flowers by the Thai restaurant. Maybe they are Romanian, I’m sure Romanian passports would surely enable them to buy those heavy black shoes.
This particular Saturday morning I scanned the back boundary of my apartment-kingdom and my eyes fell upon “the soil.” Sure I had soil! It was the last of a bag of “Sta-Green Premium Container Mix with Fertilizer.” I dumped it into a plastic hanging basket left from something I had planted last year. I the followed the old couples directions to a “t”. After placing the soil into the container I dove my index finger into the dirt up to my knuckles. Then I carefully separated the small seedlings (why aren’t they called plant-lings?) And carefully inserted them filling in around them with the nutrient enhanced loam. Yeah, they were a little closer than he had instructed but I knew I would re-pot them into other containers after they grew a bit. Then following her sing-song instruction “plant-today ... water tomorrow” well ... ok ...truth is I forgot them for a day. And I almost panicked when I realized I had actually neglected to water the gift of “a miracle.” My heart sank and I actually worried that if they indeed held some magic power it had wilted overnight right there in my $1.99 plastic hanging basket, like so many neglected plants at a chain hardware store. So I loving watered them trusting that they would indeed recover, since they were after all magic plants of hearty Ukrainian stock ....
I was thinking about none of this mind you at the time my eyes fell upon the white 10" basket of about six plant-lings of 3 to 8 inches in height. My mind was in its Saturday morning place ... coffee, trees, sky, NPR ... suddenly I could not help but laugh out loud, fortunately without a mouthful of coffee because it surely would have sprayed everything within 4 feet of where I sat. As my gaze fixed momentarily on this basket I recognized the plant right away ... “it is a marigold...”
Hey, random realization - I can't draw a level circle with a flashlight! I'm doomed for life.
This was a pretty fun project, although I figured out that pointing the flashlight directly at the camera blew out too quickly. So, I tried pointing the light down instead, creating the watery effect near the base of the hourglass, which worked better. Then I pointed the flashlight at the hourglass for ten seconds from the right and ten from the left, which gave it a nice glow. Tada!
Janine discovering that our Virgin Mobile phones got no coverage in the Netherlands. This complicated our vacation considerably.