Aircraft

Lockheed Martin’s C-5M has flown for the first time, marking a key stage in one of the biggest upgrades of a military transport ever undertaken. The aircraft took to the air from Dobbins AFB, Georgia on 20 June, after a modernisation programme that gives it a heavily updated cockpit and new General Electric CF6 engines providing a 22% thrust increase. “The C-5 will save over $20 billion,” says USAF C-5 systems group commander, Col Kevin Keck. “It pays for itself and then some. It’s a one-of-a-kind aircraft in strategic airlift with the ability to carry twice as much cargo as other systems.”