Brits destroy own C-130J. New info...not good.

Back in Feb of 2007 the RAF had to destroy one of their own C-130Js. When the story first came out the news and reports were saying that it had hit an IED...now the story is horrifically different; Electrical fire!! Y'all know I am not a fan of the J model but it is way too new and way too expensive to have electrical problems. Now, was it from a mod or a specification on Brit only planes or is this something that can effect ALL C-130J aircraft?


Thank God that the 58+crew made it out safe...



I will be looking into this to find the report on the official cause of the problem.

Link to news story


These airplanes are too expensive and the lives of those on board are too precious for these kinds of problems to exist.

C-130 Hercules Headquarters passes the reigns to Herky Birds.com

This has sort of been an inevitable thing. Scott Gager has not really updated C-130HQ in quite some time.
Besides thinking that the new name is dorky, Herky Birds.com
will be a winner with lots of support. The picture database is already outstanding and it is only going to get better. I hope that there is more contribution in the new site and I am eager to see her grow.


Good job guys (gals)


C-130 Hercules Headquarters

HerkyBirds.com

A needed update to an old friend

Lets face it, the C-130J is a failure. Sure, it is a great plane if you just want to bring cargo from Point A to Point B but it sucks in the dirt, She sucks for Maintenance, she sucks at airdrop. when she does fly into combat she has to bring two MORE pilots as outward looking observers(they have kicked off the Eng. and the Nav. on the J-Model)
Basically, the C-130J is an entirelly differient aircraft with an entirelly differient mission then the old true C-130s (C-130a/b/e/h/h1/h2/h3 types)

There is hope out there though, The C-130AMP has flown (the first aircraft's first flight was back in Sept. 2006) and the second example flew yesterday, this time being Louisville's own 91-2139 and I believe both examples of modded aircraft were originally H2 aircraft.

Why is this important? Because you now have a more modern flight deck to make the pilots happy. It is nice because you need to tape every light source when going on NVGs ...no more mini chem lights the Eng has to spend hours taping up and around instruments just to see the bloody things on Nogs.

So, it looks like if congress gets off their asses and approves this, we will see the much needed wingbox replacement for all C-130s (I will tackle that topic later) as well as a mid-life update. with all the capabilities of the older herks but, without all the stupid crap that the J model tries to bring to the table.



Let the C-130J try to replace the C-141 (she will fail at that too) and let the real herks fly into combat.