C-130 Hercules

by Martin W Bowman

  C-130K C.1 XV177 the first Hercules for the RAF, which was handed over on 19 December 1966 and (left) on arrival at Marshalls of Cambridge.

  In 1978 the MoD had funded a ‘stretch’ programme to bring thirty C.Mk.1s up to C.Mk.3 standard to increase the available cabin volume by 37 per cent and raise capacity from 92 to 129 infantrymen or from 64 to 92 paratroops, (which could, if necessary be dropped by the ‘ultra lowlevel airdrop’ (ULLA) method only yards above the ground). This decision followed Lockheed’s success in extending the commercial L-100-20 and -30 by using a 5 feet ‘plug’ forward of the wing and a 3.3 feet ‘plug’ aft. XV223 was therefore flown back to Marietta late in 1979 to become the prototype of the Hercules C.Mk.3. XV223 first flew in modified form on 3 December 1979. It returned to Britain in January 1980 to undergo Service trials with ‘B’ Flight at the A&AEE. Plugs were manufactured by Lockheed and shipped to Marshall’s where the remaining 29 C.Mk.1s were stretched to be brought up to C.Mk.3 standard. All were completed by the end of November 1985.

  In 1970 RAF Hercules assisted in earthquake relief operations in Turkey and Peru and cyclone relief operations in East Pakistan. During the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, in eighteen sorties between 10 and 12 December, Hercules transports evacuated 909 British and friendly foreign nationals from West Pakistan and 434 from a bomb-cratered runway in East Pakistan. In 1972 Lyneham’s Hercules helped with typhoon relief in the Philippines, earthquake relief in Nicaragua, as well as reinforcement of Belize to counter threat of invasion by that country. In March 1973, 46 Group was involved in Operation ‘Khana Cascade’, the biggest airlift since Berlin in 1948, in which Hercules dropped almost 2,000 tons of grain, maize and rice to Himalayan villagers in Nepal. (In 1980 the RAF Hercules returned, in ‘Khana Cascade 80’.) In 1973 also, Hercules assisted in famine relief in Sudan, Mali and West Africa and deployed UN peacekeepers to the Middle East after the Yom Kippur war.

  RAF C.1 XV199 of the Lyneham Wing, RAF Air Support Command in the early high- gloss sand/brown upper surface and black under surface scheme. Sixty-six C-130K models were purchased by Great Britain for the RAF. The first flew on 19 October 1966 and as the Hercules C.Mk.1, entered service with 242 OCU at Thorney Island in April 1967.

  In 1974 Hercules dropped relief supplies to St. Helena and gave assistance to cyclone relief in north Australia and famine relief in North Africa. 1974 was also the first year that the Hercules first began deploying troops to Northern Ireland. In July, during the war in Cyprus, the RAF airlifted 13,430 service and civilian families by Hercules, VC 10s, Britannias, Belfasts and Comets. One Hercules alone airlifted 139 people from Dhekelia to Akrotiri. On 10 March 1975 Hercules’ of 48 Squadron evacuated civilians from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. An evacuation of the British Embassy in Saïgon was made under fire. Emergency reinforcement of Belize and earthquake relief in the Van region of Turkey was carried out, but all RAF units in Cyprus, except a few Whirlwind helicopters but including transports were withdrawn to the UK. In 1979 Hercules’ evacuated Western nationals from Iran, assisted in earthquake relief in Yugoslavia, supported the Red Cross in Kampuchea and delivered civil relief to Nicaragua during the civil war there. For three months during 1979-80 six Hercules were used in Operation ‘Agila’ to resupply British forces in Rhodesia (later to become Zimbabwe) stationed there to help monitor the ceasefire and the setting up of free elections after a long and bloody civil war. Main operations were flown from the capital, Salisbury and about five other towns, as well as remote air drop zones (DZs). The latter posed the biggest threat to air operations. There had been no time to fit the RAF Hercules with defence against infrared guided surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), but the main danger came from Patriotic Front small arms and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA). The ‘Fat Alberts’ were flown at lo-lo altitudes of 250 feet at a speed of 210 knots to minimize the SAM threat. Operations were flown without accident, although there were a few near-misses, the main problem being a few bird strikes. On 3 August 1981 a stretched C.Mk.3 of 70 Squadron left Lyneham to rescue British holidaymakers stranded in the Gambia following an attempted coup. Operating from Dakar, Senegal the RAF crew under the command of Squadron Leader Rod Caffady evacuated approximately 200 refugees from Banjul airport during the following week. On 31 October 1984 the RAF flew a detachment of two Hercules, four aircrews and fifty ground staff at short notice to Addis Ababa to assist in the distribution of famine-relief supplies in Ethiopia. Within hours of arriving in Addis Ababa the RAF detachment was in action flying up-country, delivering grain into some of the toughest and most inhospitable airstrips in the world. The RAF transports were joined in due course by military aircraft from five other nations. Operation ‘Bushell’ as it was called was initially intended as a three-month effort (by year-end the Hercules had ferried more than 3,500 tons of supplies) but it continued into 1985, making it the longest sustained relief effort ever. It involved aircraft from Nos. 47 and 80 Squadrons, specially trained in low-level air-drop techniques, with crews rotating regularly. The tropical heat and the altitude of the Ethiopian plateau posed problems similar to those which the RAF had experienced in Rhodesia in 1980.

  Nepalese children at Surkhet sift grain spillage from a delivery just brought to them by C.Mk.1 XV200 of 46 Group (RAF) Transport Command during the March 1973 Operation ‘Khana Cascade’. This aircraft became the C.Mk.1P prototype in April 1982. (RAF)

  On 2 April 1982 Britain suddenly had a war on its hands in the South Atlantic when Argentinean forces invaded the Falkland Islands. The UN attempted to persuade the ruling junta in Buenos Aires that it should withdraw its forces of occupation from the islands, but to no avail. Even though the British government had already decided to mount Operation ‘Corporate’ to retake the islands, Britain’s action was legitimized by the UN following this failure to resolve the situation diplomatically. On 3 April eight Hercules left Lyneham and staged through Gibraltar to Wideawake airfield on the British-owned island of Ascension (4,260 miles from Britain and 3,915 miles from Stanley). One aircraft carried a six-man team from the UK Mobile Air Movements Squadron (UK MAMS) in order to establish an airhead for the Hercules fleet from the UK. Apart from the need to organize, equip and deploy a large naval task force to repossess the islands, one other major consideration centred on how the very longrange supply mission could be best carried out. On 21 April the first airdrop by Hercules from Ascension Island to ships of the Task Force took place. In the first three weeks 163 flights were made by Hercules aircraft and they delivered almost 1,500 tons of stores and equipment for the Task Force. In addition, two chartered Boeing 707s and even some ex-RAF Belfasts supplemented the RAF effort.

  These supporting operations posed no immediate problems to the RAF. Hercules crews were already familiar with this route, staging through Gibraltar (southbound) and Dakar (northbound), where they ground-refuelled for the legs to and from Ascension Island. However, the range performance of 47 and 70 Squadron’s Hercules was such that provision for in-flight refuelling would have to be made if they were to support the Task Force as far as Port Stanley in the Falklands. In the interim, beginning on 16 April, the Engineering Wing at Lyneham adapted and began fitting surplus 825 Imperial gallon auxiliary tanks intended for use in Andovers and Argosys, subsequently held in store, in the forward fuselage of the C.Mk.1s. This added 13,200lb of fuel to the Hercules’ standard 63,000lb, increasing the range by approximately 1,000 miles and extending the maximum endurance by about four hours. The converted aircraft became known as LR.2s and adaption was completed in just five days. A further increase in range was gained by installing four tanks in the forward fuselage instead of two and these aircraft became known as LR4s. The first LR version was deployed to Ascension on 4 May.

  Meanwhile, on 15 April Marshall of Cambridge was urgently directed, as a matter of high priority, to design, install, test and fit, 15 feet in-flight refuelling probes to 25 C.Mk.1s, which, when completed, would be designated C.Mk.1Ps. On 30 April Marshall also received word from the MoD that it should pr
epare a trial installation for a Hercules tanker using the standard Flight Refuelling Ltd hose-drum unit (HDU, or ‘hudu’) ML17B, which British Aerospace were using to help convert six Vulcan K.Mk.2 tankers at Manchester. In all, six modified C.Mk.1s, designated C.Mk.1Ks, would be required to serve as tankers. In-flight refuelling conversion on this scale had never been attempted before, except for a small number of EC-130Es in the USAF which had received underwing probes. The Vulcans were the only aircraft already ‘probed’, but their in-flight refuelling systems had not been used for fifteen years and crews were not current in the refuelling technique. Since no new probes could be made in the time available, Marshall Engineering produced a probe installation fashioned from a standard Flight Refuelling Ltd probe with a Mk.8 nozzle fitted to a surplus Vulcan. Using as the prototype C.Mk.1P XV200 (which was at Cambridge for routine engineering), it was installed in the upper forward fuselage of the Hercules, offset to starboard. The in-flight refuelling pipe (of 3 inches diameter) was routed along the upper surface of the fuselage to enter the wing trailing edge-to-fuselage fairing on the starboard side, where it connected with the vertical ground refuelling pipe. The latter was modified to have a ‘Y’-branch, adjacent to which a non-return valve was included to isolate the in-flight refuelling system when the aircraft was refuelled on the ground. Another non-return valve was fitted just aft of the probe to contain fuel in the event of nozzle failure at the weak link, which could result from excessive side loads during air-to-air refuelling. Two floodlights were fitted to the side of the co-pilot’s instrument panel and positioned to illuminate the probe from the right-hand windows and the refuelling control panel was located above the navigator’s station on the flight deck.

  On 18 June 1982 Flight Lieutenant Terry Locke and his crew on 70 Squadron set a new world duration record for the Hercules in C.Mk.1P XV179 on an airdrop mission to East Falkland lasting 28 hours 4 minutes. (Marshall Aerospace)

  Below” Hercules C-130K C.1 XV203 with a Vulcan and three Phantoms on Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island during the Falklands War. XV203 was delivered to the SLAF (Sri Lankan Air Force) as CR-880 in June 2009.

  Hercules C-130K C.1 XV205 at the time of the Falklands War in 1982. Unconfirmed reports indicate that at or just prior to Wednesday 29 August 2007 this aircraft, from RAF Lyneham now having been converted to C.1P standard, was landed heavily at night on a rough airstrip in the Afghan desert and was badly damaged and could not be recovered. It was being used to transport SAS units and was equipped with highly classified satellite and high frequency radio communications suites. Because of the presence of Taliban troops in the area, some equipment was removed and the Hercules was blown up.

  Marshalls completed this first C.Mk.1P in just ten days. XV200 made its first flight fitted with the probe installation on 28 April and was delivered the next day to the A&AEE. The aircraft passed its first test with flying colours on 2 May when it successfully transferred fuel to a Victor K.2 and on 5 May XV200 was redelivered to 47 Squadron at Lyneham. Problems during trial ‘prods’ with Victor K.2s were gradually eliminated and a new air-toair refuelling ‘toboggan’ technique was adopted. The Victor’s minimum speed at 23,000 feet (the Hercules’ optimum range-height with load) was 264 mph, compared with the transport’s maximum speed at high all-up weight of 242 mph. This meant that the Victor had to approach the Hercules from above and astern, the latter beginning a 500 feetper-minute descent as soon as visual contact was made. The Victor then slowly had to overtake, allowing the Hercules to move into the six o’clock low position to engage the drogue and continue the descent at about 500 feet per minute for fifteen minutes at a speed of 270 mph.

  XV200 reached Wideawake on 12 May and the first Hercules’ air-refuelled, long-range, airdrop sortie to the Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ), imposed by British Forces around the Falklands went ahead on 16 May. The operation, to drop 1,000lb of special stores and eight members of the SAS, a total distance of 7,247 miles, was made by Flight Lieutenant Harold Burgoyne’s crew in the Hercules. Burgoyne wrote:2

  ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great to have a nice, safe job like being on a front-line fighter squadron!’

  ‘The line was delivered by Flight Lieutenant Bob ‘Bumper’ Rowley, the co-pilot of XV200 as it slowly taxied past the two Quick Reaction Alert F-4 Phantom fighters parked off the edge of Runway 14, Wideawake airfield, Ascension Island early on the morning of 17 May. Across the cockpit, in the captain’s seat, I smiled and have both aircraft a wide berth as I gingerly moved past them in the darkness. Just behind us, our flight engineer, Flight Sergeant Steve ‘Slug’ Sloane, wiped the grit from his eyes and passed his last fuel reading to Flight Lieutenant Jim Cunningham, who duly completed his navigator’s log and placed it in his bag. As the aircraft came to a halt on its parking slot, my loadmaster MALM Mick Sephton opened the door, stepped down on the tarmac and gratefully filled his lungs with the fresh, salt-laden Island air. I called for the ‘Shut-Down Checks’ and, as the propellers of the Hercules slowly wound to a halt and the all-pervading noise faded, I extracted my aching body from my seat, stretched stiffly and reflected inwardly on what my crew had just been through in the lead up to our record-breaking flight of 24 hours and five minutes from Ascension to the Falkland Islands and return.

  ‘It seemed a long time ago, yet it was barely 46 days since that fateful day, 2 April, when it all began...

  ‘All personnel of 37 Squadron, RAF Lyneham, were eagerly looking forward to the Easter weekend and a well-earned break after a particularly busy exercise period. The news of the Argentine invasion had not made much of an impact. After all, the Falkland Islands were over 4,000 miles from any usable airfield; well outside the operating range of the C-130 Hercules aircraft and thus unlikely to have any impact on our activities. However, others had different ideas.

  ‘Two of our five crews were hastily detached to Ascension Island to begin a steady programme of parachute re-supply drops to the ships of the British Task Force as they steamed steadily southward. Simultaneously, the remaining three crews began an intensive programme of mission rehearsals and developing the new techniques that would be required to meet the operational plans being developed at the Northwood HQ of Operation ‘Corporate’. New equipment such as Inertial Navigation Systems and Night Vision Goggles (NVG) arrived daily and were fitted, trialled and tested. To increase the range, four ex-Andover aircraft fuel tanks were mounted in the cargo compartments of several aircraft and experimental trial flights of over twelve hours were commonplace. In three weeks, we completed a trials and training programme that would have taken almost two years in peacetime.

  ‘Towards the end of April it became apparent that our main job was going to be the re-supply of the Task Force, which by then was at the extreme range of the Ascension-based Hercules, even those fitted with the auxiliary fuel tanks. A means of further extending the range of the aircraft to the 4,000 nautical miles required had to be quickly evolved and the answer was Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR).

  ‘The necessary extra equipment was fitted to a Hercules in record time and on the morning of 6 May ‘The Boss’ and I plus a composite crew, assembled in a briefing room at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down, to prove the system and learn how to conduct AAR operations under the tutelage of Test Pilot Squadron Leader John Brown.

  ‘Five days later all was complete. In that time we cleared the Hercules to refuel from a Victor tanker at weights above 155,000lb (the normal maximum take-off weight of the C-130) on four and three engines. Two-engine AAR had been attempted but had proved impossible at the extreme weights involved; but I vividly recall my excitement at flying the aircraft for the first time in my ten years on the Hercules with two engines actually shut down!

  ‘Already an experienced RAF Qualified Flying Instructor and with all of four trips and five hours experience under his belt, Max Roberts was nominated as the first Hercules AAR Instructor and set about teaching AAR to other pilots and forming what would become the Lyneham Tanker
Training Flight. Meanwhile, my crew hopped on a VC10 and detached to Ascension Island to start resupplying the task force using our newly acquired, but ‘unrefined’, skills.

  ‘On our arrival at Ascension on the morning of 14 May, Wideawake airfield appeared initially to be a scene of total chaos. Apron space was at a premium with Victors, Nimrods, VC10s, Hercules and even a visiting USAF C-141 apparently shoehorned into their parking slots whilst overhead a never-ending stream of buzzing helicopters went about their business. The predatory shape of a lone Vulcan bomber parked just off the runway seemed to preside over this hive of activity and its Shrike anti-radar missiles slung menacingly under the wings only added to the sinister image. It was hot, dusty and the noise level was ear shattering.

  The famous ‘Blue Falcons’ parachute display team after dropping from their Hercules.

  In 1972 C-130K C.1 XV208 was taken out of service with 48 Squadron at Changi, Singapore and the aircraft returned to the UK in 1973 with a damaged main spar. It was delivered to Marshalls for extensive modification as the Hercules W.Mk.2 for weather reconnaissance and research by the Royal Aircraft Establishment’s Meteorological Research Flight at Farnborough. Once completed, Snoopy, as this aircraft was affectionately known, flew on 31 March 1973. ‘Snoopy’ remained at Farnborough until experimental flying ceased; it then moved to Boscombe Down where it was operated by DERA until the aircraft was taken out of service in April 2001. Snoopy’s last weather trip was on 28 March 2001 returning from a successful trip to Tromsö in northern Norway looking at the Arctic ice pack and its effect on global climate and satellite meteorology. Snoopy served with MRF from 1972 and flew over 1,800 research sorties from Rio de Janeiro and the Solomon Islands to the Polar ice caps. XV208 was scrapped on 14 April 2015 at Cambridge.