The new "gunship" or the "Alan Parsons Project"

DATE:12/12/07
SOURCE: FlightGlobal
Boeing installs laser weapon on C-130
By Stephen Trimble
PICTURE:
http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getAsset.aspx?ItemID=20792


Boeing moved closer earlier this month to realizing a seven-year goal to
demonstrate a high-powered laser as a weapon aboard a Lockheed Martin
C-130H.
The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), including its 12,000lb integrated module
was integrated on the aircraft on 4 December. The combined system also was
aligned with the beam control system.
Boeing plans to demonstrate the combined system in 2008 for the US Special
Operations Command, completing an advanced concept technology demonstration
project begun in 2001.
“Next year, we will fire the laser at ground targets, demonstrating the
military utility of this transformational directed energy weapon,” Scott
Fancher, VP and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, said in a
statement.



Boeing has installed a 12,000 pound high-energy chemical laser module on board a C-130H aircraft, as part of the US Air force Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (CTD) program. The module was moved into place aboard the aircraft and aligned with the previously-installed beam control system, which will direct the laser beam to its target. The aircraft is being prepared to conduct a series of tests leading up to a planned demonstration flight in 2008.
"Next year, we will fire the laser at ground targets, demonstrating the military utility of this transformational directed energy weapon." said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. The test team will fire the laser through a rotating turret that extends through the aircraft's belly. ATL, which Boeing is developing for the U.S. Department of Defense, will destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations.

The program achieved two other major milestones earlier this year. "Low-power" flight tests were completed in June at Kirtland; the ATL aircraft used its flight demonstration hardware and a low-power laser to find and track moving and stationary ground targets. The flight demonstration hardware includes the beam control system; weapon system consoles, which display high-resolution imagery and enable the tracking of targets; and sensors. The low-power laser, a surrogate for the high-energy laser, hit its intended target in each of more than a dozen tests. Also, in late July, the high-energy laser concluded laboratory testing at the Davis Advanced Laser Facility at Kirtland, demonstrating reliable operations in more than 50 firings.

Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser industry team includes L-3 Communications/Brashear, which made the laser turret, and HYTEC, Inc., which made various structural elements of the weapon system.

Airborne Tactical Laser (ATL)

The Airborne tactical Laser is a Special Operations Command (SOCOM) sponsored Advanced Concept Technology demonstration (ACTD) program, designed to demonstrate the use of high power tactical lasers from an airborne platform.
Under the program, a chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) will be installed on a modified C-130H transport aircraft, simulating a future AC-130 laser equipped gunship. The airborne tactical laser will be able to destroy, damage or disable targets at tactical ranges with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations. The laser will be able to place a 10-centimeter-wide beam with enough energy to melt and slice through a metal target from a distance of 15 kilometers. ATL is expected to produce scaleable effects, meaning the weapon operator will be able to select the degree and nature of the damage done to a target by choosing a specific aimpoint and laser shot duration. For example, targeting the fuel tank of a vehicle could result in total destruction of the vehicle, while targeting a tire might result in the vehicle stopping without injury to the driver.

The program is led by Boeing, which is assisted by an industry team including L-3 Communications/Brashear, which made the laser turret, and HYTEC, Inc., which made various structural elements of the weapon system. Boeing began flight testing of a surrogate solid-state laser in October 2006. The aircraft used a surrogate solid-state "low-power" laser for search and track of ground targets. The system utilizes the hardware designed for the high power chemical laser, which includes the beam director and optical control bench, controlling and directing the laser beam to its target; weapon system consoles, which will display high-resolution imagery and enable the tracking of targets; and sensors.

The high power chemical laser destined for the program was also tested for the first time on Sept 21st, the ground, generating the "first light" of the high-energy chemical laser in ground tests. In december 2007, the high power module was installed on the aircraft and by 2008 it is scheduled to fire in-flight at mission-representative ground targets to demonstrate the military utility of high energy-lasers. The test team will fire the laser through a rotating turret that extends through an existing 50-inch-diameter hole in the aircraft's belly. Future potential ATL platforms could be the C-130 and MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft.

RAF looses another C-130, Crew safe...

The RAF had another blow yesterday when after a reported heavy landing on an unsecured strip outside of Kabul. The C-130K was based out of RAF Lyneham in 47 squadron. I am getting word that it was XV205, a special forces modified aircraft knows as the C-130K, C.1. If this is the case, I have flown in her back in 1998 or 99. A great little airplane.

I am just very glad that everyone was alright.

Here is the BBC video

Plane carrying Shelby and Cramer fired on above Iraq

A C-130 aircraft carrying an Alabama senator and congressman was fired on this evening as it was flying from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan.

The airplane was carrying Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, and two other senators.

Three rockets were shot at the plane and were "near misses," Shelby said in a telephone interview. He said the pilot took evasive maneuvers to avoid the rockets. The plane landed safely in Amman at about 4 p.m. central.

"I was looking out the window, a little small window, and I saw a shell or something," Shelby said. "And then I see a flare. Our plane started maneuvering and changing directions and shaking all around."

On Deck with the Hercules: or, "LOOK MA, NO HOOK"

OK, I felt sort of bad about bagging on "TheNavy" the other day...It was all fun and games, see, I grew up in a Navy town, and to top it off, my Pops was a Jarhead (way before I trickled out)

Ahhh those days I remember riding my bike up to the approach end of the runways at Miramar and having the landing F-14As just a few feet over my head...great days, OK, I guess I sort of like "TheNavy" guys n' gals.



One of the coolest things ever done with a C-130!!




C-130 Hercules Lands on U.S.S. Forrestal


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 U.S. Navy decided to try to land a Hercules on an aircraft carrier. 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?

Not only was it possible, it was done in moderately rough seas 500 miles out in the North Atlantic off the coast of Boston. 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.

When Lt. James H. Flatley III was told about his new assignment, he thought somebody was pulling his leg. "Operate a C-130 off an aircraft carrier? Somebody's got to be kidding," he said. But they weren't kidding. In fact, the Chief of Naval Operations himself had ordered a feasibility study on operating the big propjet aboard the Norfolk-based U.S.S. Forrestal (CVA-59). The Navy was trying to find out whether they could use the Hercules as a "Super COD" - a "Carrier Onboard Delivery" aircraft. The airplane then used for such tasks was the Grumman C-1 Trader, a twin piston-engine bird with a limited payload capacity and 300-mile range. If an aircraft carrier is operating in mid-ocean, it has no "onboard delivery" system to fall back on and must come nearer land before taking aboard even urgently needed items. The Hercules was stable and reliable, with a long cruising range and capable of carrying large payloads.




The aircraft, a KC-130F refueler transport (BuNo 149798), on loan from the U.S. Marines, was delivered on 8 October. 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 big worry was whether we could meet the maximum sink rate of nine feet per second," Flatley said. As it turned out, the Navy was amazed to find they were able to better this mark by a substantial margin.

In addition to Flatley, the crew consisted of Lt.Cmdr. W.W. Stovall, copilot; ADR-1 E.F. Brennan, flight engineer; and Lockheed engineering flight test pilot Ted H. Limmer, Jr. The initial sea-born landings on 30 October 1963 were made into a 40-knot wind. Altogether, the crew successfully negotiated 29 touch-and-go landings, 21 unarrested full-stop landings, and 21 unassisted takeoffs at gross weights of 85,000 pounds up to 121,000 pounds. At 85,000 pounds, the KC-130F came to a complete stop within 267 feet, about twice the aircraft's wing span! The Navy was delighted to discover that even with a maximum payload, the plane used only 745 feet for takeoff and 460 feet for landing roll. The short landing roll resulted from close coordination between Flatley and Jerry Daugherty, the carrier's landing signal officer. Daugherty, later to become a captain and assigned to the Naval Air Systems Command, gave Flatley an engine "chop" while still three or four feet off the deck.



Lockheed's Ted Limmer, who checked out fighter pilot Flatley in the C-130, stayed on for some of the initial touch-and-go and full-stop landings. "The last landing I participated in, we touched down about 150 feet from the end, stopped in 270 feet more and launched from that position, using what was left of the deck. We still had a couple hundred feet left when we lifted off. Admiral Brown was flabbergasted."

The plane's wingspan cleared the Forrestal's flight deck "island" control tower by just under 15 feet as the plane roared down the deck on a specially painted line. Lockheed's chief engineer, Art E. Flock was aboard to observe the testing. "The sea was pretty big that day. I was up on the captain's bridge. I watched a man on the ship's bow as that bow must have gone up and down 30 feet." The speed of the shop was increased 10 knots to reduce yaw motion and to reduce wind direction. Thus, when the plane landed, it had a 40 to 50 knot wind on the nose. "That airplane stopped right opposite the captain's bridge," recalled Flock. "There was cheering and laughing. There on the side of the fuselage, a big sign had been painted on that said, "LOOK MA, NO HOOK."

From the accumulated test data, the Navy concluded that with the C-130 Hercules, it would be possible to lift 25,000 pounds of cargo 2,500 miles and land it on a carrier. Even so, the idea was considered a bit too risky for the C-130 and the Navy elected to use a smaller COD aircraft. For his effort, the Navy awarded Flatley the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Excerpts from Herk: Hero of the Skies, by Joseph Earl Dabney, Airlines Publications and Sales, Ltd., 1979.

When airdrops go bad

:)

-=WINGS=- C-130 Hercules... Watch this if you love the Herk

If you love the Herk, you have to see this!
I remember seeing this footage (I think it was way before the Wings channel was even on Cable)a while ago. It seams like every school related to the C-130 in the USAF plays this at least once while you attend :) I look back and am so proud of the plane...and proud that it was the only on I was truly assigned to while I was in the service.

RNZAF's C-130s gets a boost via SPAR

Many of the world's C-130s are in trouble. For one, they were not supposed to be around this long. No one ever thought that you had to make a center wing box last 50 years...but I guess because of its success and the lack of a suitable replacement, many countries including the US are keeping the old warriors. I can not talk about the other nations Wing boxes but I sure as hell can tell you that we (USAF) had major problems with our wing boxes. This has effected our war ready fleets. The poor things were just neglected for so long and they have become very tired.

One company is helping the cause. SPAR Aerospace Limited, a subsidiary of L3 communications up in Canada. Eh.

It costs a lot of money to replace a wingbox and so many countries have elected to either keep flying till they drop, let them sit and rot, replace them with the C-130J or, fix the bloody thing. I was wondering about the USAF fixing our old birds but it looks like they have finally caved in and have decided to fix them as well.

the RNZAF has chosen Spar to do the work for them. They have decided to basically replace the whole wingbox rather than inspect and repair. this is an excellent approach because it will extend the life expectancy of this aircraft. along with the wingbox, Spar is also going to modernize the C-130Hs from the RNZAF making them one of the most modern C-130s flying.

Spar is also offering its Hercules 2020 program that not only extends the life of the wingbox but the whole aircraft. It is supposed to extend the life of the plane 15-20 years and is much cheaper than the cost of a new aircraft. Keep the old birds flying...




Looks like in the last picture if you look at the nose section that there is a also in the background a USAF AMC C-130H from the 317AG from Dyess AFB in Abilene, TX... I know they need Boxes too. Lets hope they get them.

WTF!! Pakistan to get C-130 cockpit kits from US

Ok, I understand that we have to give a little to get something out of this war...and the Pakis require more of the free stuff to keep letting us near their boarders. Even though they are harder to work with than any other nation we are using for help... they throw up the most "road blocks" to finding al-Qaeda and the tallywackers.



First off, WHY NOT FIX OUR OWN PLANES FIRST!! We need upgrades to OUR aging C-130s to help the 'situational awareness' of our crews NOW yesterday!

Screw 'em



Pakistan to get C-130 cockpit kits from US
Islamabad, UNI:



Dawn newspaper quoted a spokesman for the PAF as saying that the air force would be getting the upgrade kits for its current fleet and added that it was one of the components of the 75 million dollars agreement with the US government.


The United States will provide five C-130 plane cockpit upgrade kits to the Pakistan Air Force(PAF) to improve operational capabilities of the ageing fleet of its main transport aircraft.
The United States Air Force has awarded the six million dollars contract to Rockwell Collins for supplying avionics kits to the PAF.
Dawn newspaper quoted a spokesman for the PAF as saying that the air force would be getting the upgrade kits for its current fleet and added that it was one of the components of the 75 million dollars agreement with the US government that also included the sale of six C-130 aircraft to Pakistan.
The upgrade contract will be completed in a year and it is expected that the PAF will start getting the deliveries by the later part of 2008.
''The upgrade project would help us benefit from the technological advancements on C-130s,'' said the PAF spokesman. Although, the details of what would be covered under the upgrade package have not been disclosed, but it has been learnt that the avionics and display systems company is likely to provide communication, navigational and surveillance system including Flight 26X8 inch multi-function displays, AN/ARC-210 radios, SAT-2000, multimode receivers, automatic direction finder and high frequency data link upgrades.
After the upgrades the C-130s are expected to have improved situational awareness, reduced crew workload and enhanced flight safety features.

Robins unit helps Egyptian Air Force repair C-130s

AFMCNS09 - May 14, 2007
By Holly L. Birchfield 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFMCNS) -- A 12-person team from the 653rd Combat Logistics Support Squadron here has returned after spending more than six months in Egypt to help the Egyptian Air Force's C-130s take to the skies again.
The team, consisting of various aircraft experts from the unit, traveled to Helwan, Egypt, an area 20 miles southeast of Cairo, to assist in making center wing rainbow and corner fitting repairs to the wings of four C-130 aircraft that were either cracked or corroded.
Master Sgt. Michael Ackerman, a depot structural maintenance craftsman in the 653rd CLSS who served as the team lead on the mission, said the team's enlisted force worked with Egyptian Air Force officers eight hours a day.
"Initially, [our mission] was to replace two center wing rainbow fittings -- one lower right-hand-side rainbow fitting on the center wing itself and one center wing upper left side," Sergeant Ackerman said.
The fittings are the main connecting components that hold the center and outer wings together and fasten them to the main aircraft. The two outer wing rainbow fittings were the first ever to be done off station, Sergeant Ackerman said, adding that the project saved the Egyptian Air Force millions of dollars.
The team also worked with Egyptian Air Force members on fixing two corner fittings and an engine truss mount on the aircraft. They were on site to teach the service how to make the repairs and to provide tooling the Egyptian Air Force would need for any such repairs in the future.
Master Sgt. Kenneth Foote, an aircraft structural maintenance craftsman in the 653rd CLSS who served as the team's lead structural technician, said the foreign environment presented a new experience.
"There were a small percentage of them who spoke very good English," Sergeant Foote said. "Most of them didn't speak English at all. It slowed us down at times. There was a lot of pointing to tools, but we got through it."

(all of the Egyptian C-130s are early C-130Hs)

A day at the office

There I was at six thousand feet over central Iraq, two hundred eighty knots and we're dropping faster than Paris Hilton's panties. It's a typical September evening in the Persian Gulf; hotter than a rectal thermometer and I'm sweating like a priest at a Cub Scout meeting. But that's neither here nor there. The night is moonless over Baghdad tonight, and blacker than a Steven King novel. But it's 2004, folks, and I'm sporting the latest in night-combat technology - namely, hand-me-down night vision goggles (NVGs) thrown out by the fighter boys.




Additionally, my 1962 Lockheed C-130E Hercules is equipped with an obsolete, yet, semi-effective missile warning system (MWS). The MWS conveniently makes a nice soothing tone in your headset just before the missile explodes into your airplane. Who says you can't polish a turd?

At any rate, the NVGs are illuminating Baghdad International Airport like the Las Vegas Strip during a Mike Tyson fight. These NVGs are the cat's ass. But I've digressed.

The preferred method of approach tonight is the random shallow. This tactical maneuver allows the pilot to ingress the landing zone in an unpredictable manner, thus exploiting the supposedly secured perimeter of the airfield in an attempt to avoid enemy surface-to-air-missiles and small arms fire. Personally, I wouldn't bet my pink ass on that theory but the approach is fun as hell and that's the real reason we fly it.

We get a visual on the runway at three miles out, drop down to one thousand feet above the ground, still maintaining two hundred eighty knots. Now the fun starts. It's pilot appreciation time as I descend the mighty Herk to six hundred feet and smoothly, yet very deliberately, yank into a sixty degree left bank, turning the aircraft ninety degrees offset from runway heading. As soon as we roll out of the turn, I reverse turn to the right a full two hundred seventy degrees in order to roll out aligned with the runway. Some aeronautical genius coined this maneuver the "Ninety/Two-Seventy." Chopping the power during the turn, I pull back on the yoke just to the point my nether regions start to sag, bleeding off energy in order to configure the pig for landing.

"Flaps Fifty!, Landing Gear Down!, Before Landing Checklist!" I look over at the copilot and he's shaking like a cat shitting on a sheet of ice. Looking further back at the navigator, and even through the NVGs, I can clearly see the wet spot spreading around his crotch. Finally, I glance at my steely-eyed flight engineer. His eyebrows rise in unison as a grin forms on his face. I can tell he's thinking the same thing I am.... "Where do we find such fine young men?"

"Flaps One Hundred!" I bark at the shaking cat. Now it's all aimpoint and airspeed. Aviation 101, with the exception there are no lights, I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and now tracers are starting to crisscross the black sky. Naturally, and not at all surprisingly, I grease the Goodyear's on brick-one of runway 33 left, bring the throttles to ground idle and then force the props to full reverse pitch. Tonight, the sound of freedom is my four Hamilton Standard propellers chewing through the thick, putrid, Baghdad air. The huge, one hundred thirty thousand pound, lumbering whisper pig comes to a lurching stop in less than two thousand feet. Let's see a Viper do that!

We exit the runway to a welcoming committee of government issued Army grunts. It's time to download their beans and bullets and letters from their sweethearts, look for war booty, and of course, urinate on Saddam's home. Walking down the crew entry steps with my lowest-bidder, Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strapped smartly to my side, look around and thank God, not Allah, I'm an American and I'm on the winning team. Then I thank God I'm not in the Army. Knowing once again I've cheated death, I ask myself, "What in the hell am I doing in this mess?" Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? You bet your ass. Or could it possibly be for the glory, the swag, and not to mention, chicks dig the Air Medal. There's probably some truth there too. But now is not the time to derive the complexities of the superior, cerebral properties of the human portion of the aviator-man-machine model. It is however, time to get out of this ass-hole. "Hey copilot, clean yourself up! And how's 'bout the 'Before Starting Engines Checklist.'"

God, I love this job!

Ever Onward and Upward,

Major Michael R. Hampton
115th Airlift Squadron, USAF, ANG

A sharp salute

NC-130B: The six engined Herk

In the early 60s the USAF wanted a STOL version of the C-130 Hercules to be used as a prototype for the planned C-130C STOL (Short Take Off/Land). The test aircraft NC-130B 58-0712 (L/N 3507) was fitted with two extra prototype straight jet versions of the T-56 that the C-130 was already using, Minus the reduction gearbox and the prop and was called YT-56-A-6 (and I have also seen it as YJ-56-A-6).



These jet turbines were used not for pure thrust to get off the ground with more power but to be used to provide bleed air for a boundary-layer control system. This Boundary-layer control system was comprised of air ducts throughout the wings and empennage to provide bleed air over the tops of the control surfaces to provide more lift and in theory allow the aircraft to have a slower approach speed, shorter landing distance and shorter take off distance. This was supposed to be 50-70 KTS compared to the standard 80-100 KTS. The aircraft also had different flaps fitted and the ailerons would droop when the flaps would be set past 40 degrees. The requirements were, take off from a 500 foot unprepared strip with a 20,000 payload. This was flown against a standard C-130 with a standard crew and the standard C-130 actually took off and landed in a shorter distance. This might have been because of the added weight of the extra engines and bleed air ducting.

The C-130C was canceled after just 23 hours of flight test and the NC-130B was given to NASA JSC in 1961 and given the serial number N929NA and was flown to do further tests on the boundary layer control system between June 1961 and December 1961 and then again between February 1963 and November 1967.


After the tests were complete, the aircraft was then transferred to NASA DFRC Dryden and the YT (YJ)-56s were removed and the flaps were returned to the normal C-130 Lockheed-Fowler type configuration. The registration number was changed again to N707NA and was fitted with a much larger radome and used by NASA in the NASA Earth Survey 2 program

covering lower levels while satellites covered from higher altitudes. She ended her flying days with AMES Research Center at Moffett field.




She was then given the AMARC or the "boneyard" on 4 November 2000 and as of 2001 she was still stored.

UAV Guide thanks to FAS.org

I will be the first to tell you that I am not 100% keen on UAVs. There is no substitute for a pilot in an aircraft and doing the flying him/her self. There is no substitute for the situational awareness of actually being in the aircraft. I can not imagine replacing a close air support aircraft like an A-10 with a CUAV...there is just too much to see. and what is next? replacing a C-130 with a UAV? I could not imagine flying that thing behind a screen...there is just so much to smell and feel in that aircraft.


UAVs have been with us for decades...from the old Ryan's Firebees (BQM-34 series) launched from old DC-130s to the big-mamma D-21 launched from the SR-71 (M-21)mothership.

Where UAVs shine in my book...keeping the ground troops out of harms way while collecting recon. Thank God for these little guys...




FAS.ORG's Posting of the UAV ROADMAP 2005


This is a nice little guide for those of us who are interested in learning a bit more about these little (and some not so little) things.

Check it out and become the one of the biggest fans of the four fans of freedom

If you ever wanted to know what it is like to fly on a Tactical C-130....these guys really have captured its spirit.


Ain't got bullets so they got to have balls...




Flying low and slow, kicking ass and taking names...

C-130 eye candy