Herc on Floats for Spec Ops?

[armrdsoul77]

C130 seems to be the guinea pig for questionable modifications to an aircraft. They wanted to land one in a stadium in Iran to rescue hostages and then take-off using rockets for super stol performance.

 

[YZT580]

the PBY certainly comes to mind. Upgrade to turboprops, certainly has the range and was capable of carrying torpedoes, depth charges and/or a 4000 lb bomb load. They were slow but then again a herc on floats would probably not win any airraces either.

 

[YZT580]

C130 seems to be the guinea pig for questionable modifications to an aircraft. They wanted to land one in a stadium in Iran to rescue hostages and then take-off using rockets for super stol performance.

jato bottles used to be standard. The CAF used to use them to get in and out of TZ with the quad radar for the CNE airshow.

 

[dimsum]

C130 seems to be the guinea pig for questionable modifications to an aircraft.

Completely spitballing here, but probably bc for a long time, it was the most common western mil transport (or wide enough) aircraft.

 

[GK .Dundas]

Does anyone know how long the take -off run for the Buffalo was with Jato bottles?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The Buff was trailed with a air cushion for landing on water and rough fields. I vaguely recall an attempt to put floats on a buff, but can't find anything on it.

 

[Good2Golf]

Well if nothing else the footage from the accidents will be awesome.
I am far from an expert but this just screams really, really bad idea to me.
Mind you I have seen at least one drawing of a C 130 with a flying boat hull. Now that at least made more sense than floats.

Crazier things have been tried with C-130s…

 

[Spencer100]

Nasa Buffalo for short takeoff and landing

 

[daftandbarmy]

To quote Monty Python: Albatross!

Grumman HU-16 Albatross - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[armrdsoul77]

The Buff was trailed with a air cushion for landing on water and rough fields.

XC-8A ACLS: redesignation of C-8A following conversion for use as an Air-Cushion Landing System research aircraft; instead of conventional landing gear it has an inflatable but perforated rubber air cushion which permits operation from and to almost any type of surface, including ice, rough airfields, soft soils, snow, swamps and water.

 

[YZT580]

XC-8A ACLS: redesignation of C-8A following conversion for use as an Air-Cushion Landing System research aircraft; instead of conventional landing gear it has an inflatable but perforated rubber air cushion which permits operation from and to almost any type of surface, including ice, rough airfields, soft soils, snow, swamps and water.
View attachment 73752

a lot lighter than floats and more easily jettisoned. Wonder if any of the marine crew have even heard of it.

 

[KevinB]

AFSOC has Herc’s. RDT&E monies go a lot further on an in-service systems as opposed to trying to make a program from scratch.

Don’t get me wrong, if it works it will be an interesting capability, but I think they’re really pushing a niche capability requirement to the breaking point.

 

[daftandbarmy]

AFSOC has Herc’s. RDT&E monies go a lot further on an in-service systems as opposed to trying to make a program from scratch.

Don’t get me wrong, if it works it will be an interesting capability, but I think they’re really pushing a niche capability requirement to the breaking point.

And there was a reason they had 'The Fighting Seabees' in the WW2 island hopping campaign in the Pacific: land based air power is the deciding factor in that theatre.

 

[GK .Dundas]

XC-8A ACLS: redesignation of C-8A following conversion for use as an Air-Cushion Landing System research aircraft; instead of conventional landing gear it has an inflatable but perforated rubber air cushion which permits operation from and to almost any type of surface, including ice, rough airfields, soft soils, snow, swamps and water.
View attachment 73752

The question I have is why wasn't it adopted ?
Given the time in which it was developed during the Vietnam drawdown . It may have just been timing.
Or was a technical issue?

 

[Good2Golf]

The question I have is why wasn't it adopted ?
Given the time in which it was developed during the Vietnam drawdown . It may have just been timing.
Or was a technical issue?

At the very least, even slower than the original…which…wasn’t fast.

 

[YZT580]

The question I have is why wasn't it adopted ?
Given the time in which it was developed during the Vietnam drawdown . It may have just been timing.
Or was a technical issue?

helicopters combined, I believe, with the feud between army and air force as to functionality. The Buffalo was originally designed to supply the army in theatre in Viet Nam. When the air force won the feud over transport, the buffalo became road kill.

 

[childs56]

Lockheed Martin already designed the Floats back in the 60's for the Herc. there was not a need for them at the time, It will be interesting to see what the final product will turn out like. Being the poor Techs who have to quick change those things around sure would suck.

 

[Dana381]

C130 seems to be the guinea pig for questionable modifications to an aircraft. They wanted to land one in a stadium in Iran to rescue hostages and then take-off using rockets for super stol performance.

Or land it on a carrier