Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Don't these have to be a bit light on their feet for aircraft carriers?
Are you teasing me with this post?
I was expecting an emoji... that would help me understand.
The C-130 on the carrier was a stunt, a proof of concept, done only once to see if it could be done.
It can. But it has no military utility. Take 40+ warplanes out of an operating area in order to get an empty cargo plane into the operating area (and the demo was done with an empty Herc). It's a very risky operation, much more so than normal fixed wing ops because of the Herc's size, and lack of arresting gear.
A risky operation that takes warplanes out, and adds...a cargo plane with no cargo?
This C-130 on a carrier isn't the Doolittle raid...it's a stunt...
That said, you guys should know I love the Herc. Incredible short field performance (takeoff and landing). Good capacity. Reliable. Durable. Versatile.
Flew in one up to Baghdad a few years ago, in fact.
And this was a cool video (though I don't think it's a true loop, hard to judge from the camera angle, but it didn't get to 90 nose up or nose down, more like a barrel roll, which keeps the the G down to the airplane's limits.).
But let's be honest - it's still a cargo plane, and a slow one at that, optimized for intra-theater* operations.
*Cargo guys talk about inter-theater (long range, into and out of the theater) and intra-theater.
Inter-theater takes big lift at high speed for the long range transit. You need big lift numbers for the long range ops, or you just don't move enough stuff to make air transport worthwhile. The C-5 is an excellent example of that. Big, fast, long-range carries a lot.
Intra-theater takes moderate lift, with lots of unimproved runways, to have flexibility to get troops, gear, and supplies just where the need to be. You must make use of lousy facilities. High-frequency, short-range ops. Slow speed isn't as big a deal in that scenario, but short runway ops are a big deal.
The A-400M and the C-17* tried to be both: inter and intra. But they ended up not doing as well as the Herc intra and they can't carry the weight the C-5 can (though in-flight refueling changes that). The USAF is operating, and upgraded, a set of 40+ year old heavy lifters in the C-5B and C-5M to keep the capacity inter-theater. The 747 cargo is a great inter-theater platform, and there was a lot of contracted commercial heavy lift used in our recent conflicts.
*The C-17 was built, as was the C-5, with landing gear designed to operate on soft/unimproved surfaces. The C-17 in particular, has good short-field performance, but you're not going to put your $300 million+ cargo plane in a place where it can get shot at...so, while the capability is there, the mission is flown by the Herc...