[Paleo Conservative]

The full title was too long for the Free Republic posting page. Below is the whole title

Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy Makes Historic First Flight Preserving USAF Global Reach Capability Through 2040

Here are some more articles.

http://www.emilitary.org/article.php?aid=6760

Pictures
http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/06/20/Navigation/177/207342/Pictures+Lockheed+Martin+C-5M+Super+Galaxy+makes+first.html

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060619-040656-2883r

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1883211.php

[Paleo Conservative]

If you want on or off the aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.

[martin_fierro]

Big-A$$ Hunk of Plane PING

[umgud]

Mnay years ago, as a contractor, I worked on a hanger at Travis AFB used for these things......... Talk about huge. These things are awsome.

[Kenny Bunkport]

Is this what you saw?

[Flightdeck]

The day after the A380 was reported to have a wing snapped during stress testing. Cheers to American aerospace engineers!

[JRios1968]

Just a few pics

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060620-F-9988K-001.JPG

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060620-F-9988L-003.JPG

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060620-F-9988N-002.JPG

And a story:

C-5 still going strong after 38 years

[El Gato]

Decompression sickness if the proper punishment for these bastards. Give them the bends until their joints bubble like champagne.

I hope those CF6-80C2 Engines don't have that metallic whine/grinding sound that the current engines have, at least a low altitude. My employer is located directly under the landing pattern of the Reserve schoolhouse for the C-5. A very irritating sound, although not all that loud.

Wonder why they went from "B" to "M" rather than "C"?

[dennisw]

Super-G props!!!! Not that I know a damn thing about it but I like any military flying machine

[El Gato]

Lots of changes since I saw my first C-5.. summer of '71 it was, at Vandenberg AFB. Our flight commander was facing the airfield, with the rest of the flight facing him. He was blabbing about something or other (good guy though, he was my roommate for the second half of the ROTC field training and was the first commander because he'd had lots of CAP experience, had been the 4 year program (we were 2 year program) but had to lay out do to illness or something) He stopping in mid blab, called us to attention (we were at ease) and then "about..face". The bird was pretty new in those days.

[Reaganesque]

I used to live near Hanscom AFB and they would get a C-5 in there from time to time and you could always tell when one was taking off or landing. We lived near the end of the main runway and when a C-5 was ready to take off, our windows would rattle, the furniture would vibrate and the cat would dive for cover. It also has a rather distinctive and impressive engine sound.

From time to time, if I heard it taxiing for takeoff, I would run over to the FamCamp (camping area for visiting family members) and watch it take off. I would frequently marvel that the thing could get into the air at all.

[Constantine XIII]

If you absolutely need to have a whale delivered by the next buisness day, you know who to call. :)

Beautiful piece of engineering!

[Erasmus]

They should stick 600 seats in it and call it an L-380.

[real saxophonist]

One summer I stayed in Mayretta, right across the highway from one of the runways at Dobbins. Didn't matter how many times I heard that distinctive whine, I'd still run outside to watch those C-5s fly over.

I knew a girl whose dad flew C-5s. Unfortunately, he died of cancer before I met his daughter. I'd like to have talked to him about flying those big ol' thangs.

Guy I marched Drum Corps with flew C-141s. Now he flies for Delta.

[AlaskaErik]

Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy....

So far it's been known as the C-5 Static Display, as often as it breaks down. Or FRED, as it is also known as.

Question: You're on an Air Force base and there are three C-5s on the flight line. Two of them are sitting on jacks. What is the implication of this scenario?

Answer: The base only has two sets of jacks.

[epow]

The Russians have the world's largest transport as measured in tonnage. It's maximum gross takeoff weight is 600,000 KG or 1,322,750 lb.

The one and only Antonov 225 ever built is now being used in commercial heavy airlift service by a joint Russian-British operation. It was first flown in 1988 but was grounded after the old USSR collapsed and then put back in service in 2001 by the Russian-British commercial operation. It was designed to carry the Russian version of our space shuttle but the Russians shut down that program after the USSR was dissolved.

See it HERE

[tcostell]

forgive my ignorance, but isn't this the plane they call:
"The Box the C-130 came in."?

[RobbyS]

Flew in an old one in 1995 from Ramstein to Dover. Smoothest flight I have ever made. across the Atlantic and I have made more than a hundred.

[ArGee]

This modernized C-5M safeguards the U.S. government's capability to move massive amounts of cargo as the workhorse for the U.S. Air Force global reach mission and ensures the most cost effective, viable strategic airlift resource for America through the year 2040.

I don't know what their definition of a workhorse is, but I'd have nominated the C130 for that, or the C141 if they really wanted a jet. The C5 is wonderful for carrying lots of equipment and their troops, and for giving their crews vacations in distant locations while spare parts are shipped in for repairs, but I don't think that makes it a workhorse.

Not that I don't LOVE the Galaxy - it's the plane I've always dreamed of flying.

Shalom.

[tioga]

Go Lockheed !!!!!

[B-Chan]

This is good news, of course, but I still think that shutting down the C-17 line is a monumentally bad idea.