SAD DAYS AHEAD FOR " FAT ALBERT"

Well they have only gone and done it at the British Ministry of Defence. After spending millions of pounds extending the Hercules airframe to a newly recoded C130-J at Marshalls Aerospace at Cambridge, they have decided its time for Fat Albert to be sold off as no longer fit for purpose.
Many of us have spent our Army careers jumping from the highly reliable C-130 as part of 16 PARA Brigade, and it will be a sad day to see her leave the Royal Air Force.:confused:

No doubt they will be sold ,lock stock and barrel at a quarter of their value to placate some foreign country, as we rely totally on the Airbus A400 as our parachuting aircraft.

https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/hercules-c130j/

Marshall expects strong demand for surplus UK Hercules | News | Flight Global

We'll probably end up buying any you sell and using them for another five decades.

Of the military transport types I've flown in, the HerkyBird was the easiest to sleep in!

Bob

Probably have to beat us Jim if its cheap the Aus Govt will buy it even if it costs the tax payers millions per year to keep them flying they'll see it as bargains apparently all our Hercs are to be retired in 2030 as we already have the J in service.
I've only been inside 1 Hercules and that was at Pearce Air Base around @1968 most impressive plane I thought my brother who was on duty crew said that the C5 Galaxy made the Herc look small there was none at the base at that time.

My great concern is this...............It is the BEST short take off and landing aircraft ever made for the payload it was expected to carry in Alberts tummy. What will replace it, certainly not the A400!!
Whoever, gets them will get a bargain, as millions have been spent on every single one of the 14 going!!
Harriers one year on a giveaway to the U.S Marine Corps now Hercules is next............who needs a war.................:surrender:

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

my brother who was on duty crew said that the C5 Galaxy made the Herc look small

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There is no comparison...

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Originally Posted by Gil Boyd

Harriers one year on a giveaway to the U.S Marine Corps now Hercules is next

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The troops combat clothing...will be next.

If you were still in you'd be back to jumpin' balloons.

Yes, been known about for a while now.

Probably why the Regt role is being changed and this new Ranger role as well as RM being used more for what the Regt did. Which was a very strange disclosure the other day.

A400M can't do what Fat Albert can do - so will be interesting to see what happens, not that MOD give a toss about capability holidays.

Is A400M cleared for UK para drops yet?

Fat Albert might just have the distinction for being longest serving aircraft in RAF when the last one is retired. It will 54 years in RAF service in a week's time, and the Canberra reached 56 years service, so it will be close.
Puma is not far behind having just reached 50, more remarkably pretty much all still being the original fleet as, where as the C-130's remaining are all newer J models so only actually just over 20 years old.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Probably have to beat us Jim if its cheap the Aus Govt will buy it even if it costs the tax payers millions per year to keep them flying they'll see it as bargains apparently all our Hercs are to be retired in 2030 as we already have the J in service.
I've only been inside 1 Hercules and that was at Pearce Air Base around @1968 most impressive plane I thought my brother who was on duty crew said that the C5 Galaxy made the Herc look small there was none at the base at that time.

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I think we have a few clapped out C130E airframes left at mountainview or somewhere we can sell to AUS. Fair deal after we took your worn out F18s 😂

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Originally Posted by Gil Boyd

FOR " FAT ALBERT"

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flew in a c130 many times. Deafening. When I saw the title, I thought someone was cancel-culture-complaining about one of the staple cartoons of my childhood...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Al...the_Cosby_Kids
c130's far more important.

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Originally Posted by ssgross

flew in a c130 many times. Deafening. When I saw the title, I thought someone was cancel-culture-complaining about one of the staple cartoons of my childhood...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Al...the_Cosby_Kids
c130's far more important.

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"Fat Albert," the C-130 that accompanies the Blue Angels.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...aulbaker-1.jpg

Bob

JATO...Yahoo!

You like JATO Jim then how would you like this C-130 they fitted up for a mission that did not go ahead, the plane was supposed to land and take off within a soccer stadium.
Sadly the forward thrusting rockets fired too early on a test landing and the aircraft was lost no crew were lost the hostages were released through diplomatic channels so the aircraft was not needed they had another one put together but it was not required.

Who ever was slated to fly the rig and the S.Op's on board for the mission then they had real big kahoona's it would have been a pretty wild ride and then some.

Dark Doc's has some pretty interesting stuff also another I watch on you tube is Plainly Difficult he mainly covers nuclear accidents along with other types.
How to Land an AC 130 in a Football Stadium - Operation Eagle Claw - YouTube

Yes the A400 has been undergoing trials for the last four years for Parachuting conversion. A good friend who spent the last 5 years of his 22 in The Parachute Regiment, was at RAF Brize Norton Number 1 PTS doing just that.
Very brave if you ask me, not a job I'd like to have done, but it was all wasted as the aircraft had a modification and all his chancing with death was wasted and the trials continue.

16 Air Assault Brigade has a new General..... Andy Harrison, and with that comes fresh ideas.

Probably back to being called 16 PARA Brigade (so called following the Battle for Arnhem when 1st Airborne and 6th Airborne were the Force to be reckoned with in WW2 after quick formation when Churchill needed 5,000 PARA trained troops) thought I would throw that in for those that didn't know! Thats why history plays a big part in retaining the numbers!

We will probably be called COMBAT units soon, so we can have the Royal Marines join the happy throng.................why not.....as long as they have done their PARA course and everything that entails. Afterall, they do have a company of RM's in the Special Forces Support Group with a company of RAF Regiment with 1 PARA.:rolleyes:

WHO CARES WHO WINS!!:surrender:

Most interesting ride in one (with intention of landing with it, not one of those one-way trips) was the hop from Ramstein to Sarajevo. The standard preflight pax instructions were being recited and he said 'if you hear a bell signal...' and at that precise moment, a bell signal started. He looked around, we thought it was part of the brief, and he looked back at us to say 'leave the aircraft'. We sat mutely, as we thought he had arranged the signal as an example. He got much louder "LEAVE THE AIRCRAFT!' Turned out to be a faulty temp sensor in one of the engines. Fun times, we had to wait for them to spin up a neighboring C130.

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Originally Posted by Gil Boyd

What will replace it, certainly not the A400!

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Yer but someone has probably designed a half sized A400, the A200, just like the C130 only European.

Iran use to like C130's being one of the largest operators after the US and UK. If Iran did decide to buy them it would be interesting to see what BS was come up with to make it a politically acceptable transaction in the UK and how any restrictions were overcome to get them to Iran.