FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1288.PDF
FLIGHT • 12 AUGUST I NOW THE STOL* HERCULES * short take-off and landing A boundary layer control system, which will spectacularly shorten the already astonishingly brief take-off and landing runs of Lockheed's versatile 61-ton C-130 Hercules trans- port, is now in an advanced stage of development and flight test. The Lockheed BLC system culminates many years of study by Lockheed engineers and follows four years of research devoted to specific application of the system to the Her- cules. Four auxiliary jet engines, weighing only 500 pounds each, will furnish the streams of high pressure air which flow over all control surfaces. The BLC jet engines are each con- nected to a central system providing air evenly to all surfaces even with one engine out. Manufacturing work on the BLC Hercules can begin now because 80% of the airplane is identical to the C-130 B. In Europe, a nation or group of nations could manufacture the C-130 B and have a European version flying in less than half the time required by a new untested design. The pro- gram could then be phased into the more advanced BLC Hercules. Know-how acquired by Lockheed in manufactur- ing nearly 300 C-130s to date can make the BLC Hercules European manufacturing project the most rapid and inex- pensive answer to the needs of European nations for a high performance, all-purpose transport. As a combat transport of men and equipment the C-130 showed its superlative value in airlifts to Lebanon and Turkey.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
