Making a first visit to Dubai since its world tour in 1998, the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules from the Rhode Island Air National Guard has been attracting attention in the static park.
The aircraft made it to Dubai with just one stopover in Germany, ably demonstrating its 4,000nm (7,400km) ferry range. On the return leg later this week, the aircraft will take off at only 1,500lb under its gross take-off weight of 164,500lb (75,000kg), pause briefly in Germany and then fly direct to Rhode Island.
Some 100 C-130s and L-100s are operated in the region, many of them in Saudi Arabia. A Lockheed Martin spokesman says the company is hopeful of around 75 sales over the coming months and years.
Powered by four Rolls-Royce GMA2100D3 engines, each with 4,591pshp and all composite, six-bladed Dowty Aerospace R391 propellers, the C-130J holds 54 world records for rate of climb, cruise speed and both distance and altitude with payload.
Proudly showing guests around the all-glass, two-man cockpit was senior test pilot Arlen D Rens. He explained that, although there are no local operators of C-130Js yet, some operate in the region with the air forces of Australia, Italy and the UK which use the versatile aircraft in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Versatile
Although Rens flew A-4s, P-3s, Gulfstreams and C-118s with the US Marine Corps, racking up around 11,000h, it's easy to tell that his heart is now with the C-130J.
"It's a fantastic aircraft," he says, "and although it comes down the longest continually running production line in the history of aviation [production began in 1954] it's still, nearly 40 years after its first flight, one of the most capable, versatile and sophisticated military transports in the world."
Source: Flight Daily News
