SAD DAYS AHEAD FOR " FAT ALBERT"

[Gil Boyd]

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.

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

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[browningautorifle]

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

[Bob Womack]

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

Bob

[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.

[Gil Boyd]

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.................

[browningautorifle]

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

There is no comparison...

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

The troops combat clothing...will be next.

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

[GeeRam]

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.

[Flying10uk]

What will replace it, certainly not the A400!

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.

[StratA]

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.

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 😂

[ssgross]

FOR " FAT ALBERT"

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.