Quirky Herky a few years off
Just when you thought they had done about everything worthwhile they could to the venerable C-130, they surprise ya. Covert ops? Gotcha. Go anywhere, do anything, last forever? Yawn. Load ‘er up with multiple Gatling guns or even howitzers? Been there, done that. We know the old girl basically walks on water – they want her to land and take off from it, too.
An initial U.S. military demonstration of an MC-130J special operations tanker/transport aircraft converted into a floatplane is now two to three years away, at least.
U.S. Special Operations Command says it remains interested in exploring this concept as part of its broader interest in new runway-independent aircraft. With large established air bases and their runways expected to be prime targets in any future major conflict, such as one against China, the U.S. military as a whole is increasingly interested in a variety of novel aviation capabilities that make operations from austere locations more feasible.
U.S. Air Force Col. Ken Kuebler, U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) Program Executive Officer for Fixed Wing (PEO-FW), provided an update on what is formally known as the MC-130J Amphibious Capability, or MAC, as well as other projects within his portfolio, to The War Zone and other outlets at a briefing today at an annual special operations-focused conference now called SOF Week.
This isn’t a completely new idea – Lockheed has been playing around with amphibious concepts since the ’60s – but this go-round has more legs than its predecessors. For example, a ’60s flying boat idea:
By word of explanation, if the bottom of the fuselage is in the water and functioning as a hull, it’s a flying boat – think a WWII PBY as an example. If it has floats where you expect to see the wheels go, it’s a float plane. The classic example of that would be the DeHavilland Beaver, arguably the plane that helped explore Alaska.
Now if that last one doesn’t make you want to go fish for salmon, hunt a big brownie, or pan for gold, you must not have a pulse.
Category: Air Force
Nice Beaver!!
Just had it stuffed!
Well at least we got a gratuitous beaver shot.
And the Goodyear Inflatoplane.
Wouldn’t this qualify as a Blow Up Judy Doll?
Looks like a cross between an OV-10 Bronco and gawd knows what…….Talk about an ugly baby there!
Time to resurrect the Spruce Goose, built with modern engines and fabrication technology?
Only if you want to transport the entire USMC at one time to one place.
If we do that, we could possibly capsize the island.
Cabin crew serves small bags of crayons.
I would not be at all surprised if not too far down the road, someone decided to seal one up totally airtight and attach JATO packs; then fly it up as far as it will go, light off the JATO pack, and send it into the edge of outer space.
That would be one hell of a kick in the ass.
Who needs a float plane when a small patch of grass the size of a soccer field will do. Look up Operation Credible Sport… one of those C-130’s is on display at Robins AFB in Georgia.
Wonder where that idea came from.
Cool! This means that the Herky Bird can land NEXT TO an Aircraft Carrier as well as LANDING ON an Aircraft Carrier! Win win!
Yep, and the engines are mounted in the correct orientation!🍺
AFSOC is going through aircraft quick now. Our last MC-130E Combat Talon I was retired in Apr 2013, having started its operational life in 1966.
Its replacement the MC-130H Combat Talon II was retired in Apr 2023 (First fully operational aircraft delivered in 1991, radar delays resulted in a bunch of T2’s with no radars being delivered prior to that).
MC-130W Combat Spear a stop gap measure for operational loses and pending retirements of the MC-130E/H was presented to AFSOC in 2006. They were actually C-130H-2’s.
MC-130J Combat Commando Ii, first unit to convert to them, received its first one in Sept 2011.
So the replacement for the Combat Talon I, the Combat Talon II came 25 years later, retired 10 years after the Talon I. The stop gap replacement for the Talon I and Talon II, Comabt Spear (2006) and the actual replacement for them the Combat Commando II (2011) all came about before the final retirement of the original MC-130E Combat Talon I.
Ever since Sully landed on the Hudson….
Any airplane can be a floatplane. Once.
The Grumman HU-16 Albatross was a good small plane that could land and take off (with booster rockets) in Sea State 4+. That would take some real balls and nerves steel IMO.
The Navy had hundreds of them but they were retired years ago. I think they had one on a few Miami Vice episodes when they were briefly used in passenger aviation.
I think it was a Grumman Goose in Miami Vice, a smaller version of the Albatross.
It also could have been a Grumman Mallard in Miami Vice.
Already got a few on skis that show up on ADS-B now and then.
I see them come out of upstate NY and cross Maine headed for
Newfoundland and beyond. Callsign SKIERxx.
Or, you know, they could just buy a purpose built, operationally proven plane for the job, like the Japanese US-2, but then I guess execs at LockMart won’t get a few million more skimmed from the program into their corporate expense fund
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShinMaywa_US-2
Let me know when they’re putting floats on a B52. Call it the Stratofloatress.
Imagine the take-off run on that beast. Might as well take a boat to your destination.
I can see the Coasties being interested but what would the AF or Navy have use for it?
When the island-based airfields are cratered into uselessness and most carriers have been rendered inoperable. They can then be utilized to deliver supplies and troops.
There has always been a lot of complaining about how much money the military wastes on aircraft projects (coughF35cough) but we rarely hear about the flip side: The equipment that the military procured during the Cold War and which is still working today. Best examples, the C-130, the CH-47 and of course the B-52. I don’t know how long an airframe typically lasts but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were B-52’s out there that were being flown by the grandchildren of the pilots who first flew them.
Taxpayers got their money’s worth with those three aircraft, for sure.
“it wouldn’t surprise me if there were B-52’s out there that were being flown by the grandchildren of the pilots who first flew them.”
Since Boeing delivered the last B-52 in 1962, which entered service in 1955, it’s a safe bet that today’s aircrews could be the grandchildren of the first aircrews.
I wonder how old some of the M-2 BMGs are.
The Army found an M2 .50 caliber machine-gun still shooting perfectly after 90 years of servicehttps://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/this-50-cal-fought-for-90-years-without-needing-repair/
https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/this-50-cal-fought-for-90-years-without-needing-repair/
We also got a lot of mileage out of the M113 APC fleet, with all its many variants.
Laguardia Airport In Queens nyc had the seaplane hanger and ramp for the passenger seaplanes. I think the hanger is still there. Will check with a retired NYNJ Port Authority Lt. friend who retired from their 2 years ago.