Biggest thing I can put inside a C-130?

I'm not sure about a Black Hawk fitting in a C-130, but know they have put Hueys inside. 

Well I've seen C-130 hauling a lot of stuff. In fact I've loaded my fair share of them too. Once loaded a snow cat on one. Though rolling stock is neat, palletized cargo was the norm. 463L pallets piled high with plastic covers and netting over that strapped down to the pallet. I've asked several aftermarket mfrs to provide resin pallets and PE nets, but none have taken up the challenge.

You could do a firefighting C-130 the apparatus is unique and fills up the cargo compartment.

You could do a couple of pallets of cargo, one low profile baggage pallet (which usually sat on the ramp) with the front of the compartment filled with Ratan funiture, stereo & TV equipment boxes, cases of beer liquior & wine and just about anything one would buy on an overseas shopping trip. This was the norm for AF Reserve and ANG C-130 aircraft. 

We had a C-130 show up from the Wyoming ANG at our base to haul a Hawaii ANG Prime Beef unit back to Hawaii after their deployment for Team Spirit. The aircraft was full of the aircrews personal crap. The aircrew's junk took up three full pallet positions on the aircraft. It literally rendered the aircraft useless for the mission they were scheduled and tasked to haul.

I'll tell you tempers were hot that day. The aircrew was uncooperative, the unit returning home was pissed off and I was mad as a hornet too. The aircrew had only flown in from Japan and wanted "crew rest" so they could go shopping in Korea before they headed back towards home. When I reported that the aircraft was unsuitable for the tasking due to it being filled with personal property PACAF, MAC and the AF were screaming at the ANG folks, especially the Wyoming unit commander. 

I had to ship two or three of the pallets via normal airlift channels, which meant separating the team from their tools and supplies. Fortunately I wasn't above sending them using a higher priority than they really were, so they got there PDQ.  We packed the unit inside the C-130 as best we could, seating was tight because of the personal crap inside and the pallets of their deployment bags for the unit being transported. The commander of the Prime Beef team called me when his other pallets arrived at Hickam...he said they made that aircrews trip pure hell. The aircrew didn't even set foot off the base in Hawaii, they left as soon as they could to fly back to Wyoming.  I heard the crew was reprimanded.

After that incident there were fewer ANG C-130s tasks to support the units we were redeploying back to their home units from our locale after Team Spirit. Must have been something I said. We got C-141s instead!

you could put 48 scale mirages in the back.

My old man did it in the South African Air Force for real... very carefully as they were only supposed to be carrying supplies.. and the hold was packed with empty boxes to to hide the mirage (which wasnt supposed to be there)...

A pair of Humvees will fill it up pretty nicely without it being really crammed to the gills.

Kevin

I saw one do a pallet drop with an M198 howitzer and maybe two pallets down at Bragg a few years back.

gary

Kinda funny seeing this post pop up as on my way home from work today I was driving past the airport and to my disbelief there was a CF130 on the ramp right next to the fence, which in turn is right next to the road that I was driving on. It was an impressive site to say the least.

Not sure what it was doing here as we don't get much military traffic here aside from a few "touch and go's" every now and then from the F-16's from Selfridge ANG base from Michigan.

Melgyver wrote:

I'm not sure about a Black Hawk fitting in a C-130, but know they have put Hueys inside.

You can also get 2 Whiskey Cobra Helos in there as well. Seen that once and had to do a double take. The blades we off the snakes, but the load masters somehow got them in there.

My hats off to them for that one.

Paul  

I do believe that anything based on the M113 APC chassis is transportable by C-130.  Also, the Marine Corps LAV is transportable, but will most likely need to be partially disassembled first.   

I was able to scare up some decent references that say a folded up ?H-60 will fit in a C-130

I was starting to consider palletized cargo though.. Does anyone have a picture of an empty air cargo pallet? I was thinking about this at first and thinking they might not be too hard to scratchbuild.

Making the nets out of masking tape or something might be a PITA though.

It looks like pallet cargo is going to be the winner.

For posterity and in case anyone ever gets the same idea and searches the thread. I got the info from a current Blackhawk pilot. Will a Blackhawk fit? Yes. Will a Seahawk? No. Does the Blackhawk ever go by C-130? It is rare because loading the thing is a PITA. 

UH-60A/L Dimensions

Width: 116in

Length with tail and rotors folded: 41ft 4in

Height: 9ft (approx)

C-130 cargo hold dimensions

Width (at wheel wells): 119.5in 

Length: 40ft 4 inches (Blackhawk fits because sloped door makes enough room)

Height: 9ft

Also, the helicopter goes in nose first so there is exactly nothing to see. 

paintsniffer wrote:

It looks like pallet cargo is going to be the winner.

Do a Google search on 463L Pallet. You might want to visit the Air Force website and search through the C-130 images there.  www.af.mil

paintsniffer wrote:

I was able to scare up some decent references that say a folded up ?H-60 will fit in a C-130 I was starting to consider palletized cargo though.. Does anyone have a picture of an empty air cargo pallet? I was thinking about this at first and thinking they might not be too hard to scratchbuild. Making the nets out of masking tape or something might be a PITA though.

the M198 howitzer and two large ammo pallets really fills one of them up. But of course you could do the right thing and just put a stick of Rangers in their with all their gear. Anybody for a barrel roll off the ramp?

gary

Would those be IDF Landrovers Bondo? form probably one of the most superbly planned and executed special ops ever....

Paint, the troopers that come with Monogram's older issues of the C-47 kit could be modified into modern paratroopers without too much difficult. Replace the steel pots with K-pots and the Mustette bags with Large ALICE Rucks and you are pretty much there. The only other change would be to remove the carbine scabbards  Griswold bags with either the M1951 weapons case or have weapons exposed.

A ramp jump sounds great Gary!

Or how about this?

being loaded into this?

both were taken on the same locale during the same time period...

Edit-just found this interior shot...later era, but the same bird in a Herky...

If you do a google image search for "Stryker C-130 Afghanistan" you'll get a picture and story from USMilitary.com that shows a Stryker driving off of a C-130. 

My understanding is that the Stryker was specifically designed to weigh just under the max payload of the C-130J.

Tried to post a link, but couldn't get the buttons to work.

We were talking about this the other day at work when we were discussing the old UTTAS program. The Blackhawk will only fit in a C-130 if the rotor head assembly is removed. Sikorski had to get a waiver in the UTTAS fly-off competition because they could not meet the height requirement to be loaded in a 130 or 141 without a lot of pre maintenance preparations. The 130 and 141 both have the same height (Ceiling) deminsions of 8 feet if I remember correctly.

Charlie

Thanks Charlie,

I know you had to pull the rotor head and mast assy out of a Huey for it to fit and suspected the same with the Blackhawk. 

The issues with the Huey is what drove one of the primary requirements of the UTTAS to be able to roll on/off of a 130 and 141 without requiring the intensive maintenance before and after. The Boeing version was able to meet this requirment, but sikoski was not and applied for a waiver. It was granted and the rest is history. .

Charlie

stikpusher wrote:

Would those be IDF Landrovers Bondo? form probably one of the most superbly planned and executed special ops ever....

you know it kinda just slapped me up the side of the head a minute or so ago that the C130 has been in production for over fifty years!! Is there any piece of aircraft equipment still in production that's older? The basic engines have been in production since 1954 in one form or another. This is one of those designs like the DC3 and barely a few others that just seem to go on and on forever

gary

I believe it is the oldest still in production.

You're right and I had an inkling even as I posted it. But I think the C-130 is the longest US Military aircraft in production. My friend Airman Jim was a scanner on C-124's before he transitioned to C-130's when he got out of the Tennessee ANG and into the USAF full time, or was it the other way around. He's a Master Judge every year at Memphis in May. The man knows bbq.

Anyhow I'm really looking forward to seeing a Globemaster II soon.

jeaton01 wrote:

How about the Beech Bonanza, no interuption since 1947, and the Cessna 172 since 1956, more than 43,000 served.

The guy I used to work for flew a couple Cessnas, and he told me several years back that they were getting out of the small private aircraft business (like the 172's) due to liability factors. I didn't know that they still build Bonanzas. Seldom ever see one anymore.

gary