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C-130 Hercules: Versatile Medium Military Transport
ISBN 1 84037 197 8
Published October 2001 by Airlife, Shrewsbury -
The doyen of transport aircraft, the Lockheed C-130, has a special place in the affection of almost all lovers of aircraft. Since this far-from-glamorous lady first took the skies in the 1960's she has made her mark world-wide in a manner no other contemporary aircraft has even begun to match.
Conceived during a brain-storming session in Washington DC at the height of the Korean War, and from a casually toted set of figures which, at that date, appeared unattainable, the "Herk", as she has been known ever since, came about through dedicated work at Lockheed and since her debut has proved the world's most enduring and well-known aircraft transport.
For the past forty years there
is hardly a place in the globe, be it ever so far-flung, remote or
seemingly inaccessible, that has not welcomed the site of her ungainly
bulk squeezing into "impossible" situations to bring aid,
succour, relief and help to disaster spots, both those caused by man and
those brought about by nature. Famine relief, population movement,
revolution, transporting every conceivable air cargo, the Herky Bird is
always there, just one heartbeat behind every headline.
Conceived as a Military Transport she has, naturally, also relished that role and served with an enormous array of Air Forces world-wide, from the mighty air transport fleets of the United States, through those of smaller forces like the RAF, RAAF and Iran, and even small air forces, including Japan, Libya and Indonesia. In half a century of development the Herk has assumed many new guises, been expanded and modified countless times and been transmuted into a host of different roles, gunships, hospital planes, electronic countermeasures, weather-spotting, minelaying, maritime patrol, and a dozen more. All these different faces of the Hercules are covered in this most comprehensive book, which combines detailed factual history, with a wide range of Colour and Black-and-White photographs to illustrate every facet of this multi-talented aircraft.
Order Peter C Smith's Lockheed C-130 Hercules Today!