60 years! Tribute to the longest aircraft in US Military production - C-130 Hercules

I can remember as a young airman and visiting a friend in the tower at Davis Monthan in 1969, the "cab daddy". Newby on local control. Broke 4 f4's midfield which was standard, cleared a C130 of some type for a 9 mile straight in, which was standard, and cleared a U2 for left hand break, which was standard. Dad liked to have knocked me down getting to a mic to untangle everything. Newby said " Dad, that's what you told me to do" Dad said " yeah but I didn't tell you to clear them all at the same time. Sent the 130 and the F4's around as U2 recovery folks were already on runway. We were a SAC base at that time so the blackbirds had priority.

I was a KSUU for the open house/airshow many years back. While on the flight deck one of the airmen told me they where going to decommission the C130, the C17 was supposed to replace it. Then to my surprise I go some years later and, uh, a C130 with glass panel. Now 6 bladers, friggin' cool!! Mmmm, I wonder what the next upgrade will be???

Herc's get worked on/tested out at the Lockheed JRB in Ft Worth (formerly Carswell AFB). Occasionally you can see 2-3 AC-130s orbiting south Dallas doing targeting calibration runs. Pretty cool sight, but definitely wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of any of that!

Spent 22 years in U.S. Army special operations, jumped from virtually every type of A/C you can jump from, both static line and MFF...It all began with jump from a C-130 and ended the same way. The 130 was always my favorite jump ac, tough, reliable and versatile. I miss hearing then pass over my old house in the pattern at Pope AFB, NC. Always 50 minutes of NOE enroute to the DZ, fond memories of the Herc.

I am under the training path out of Little Rock AFB and they come over at times low enough to count rivets on the underside. They have gotten much quieter over the years as well, but still have some of the older models down there and you can tell the difference when the come over the house.

The C-130 A-model props were three-blade, not four-blade as described in the article. With the Bravo model came four-blade props.

The DC3/C47 of the 1955. Its a shame there too few on the surplus market to replace the Gooney Bird for rough field civilian use in the Dysentery Regions. I guess the L100 was too costly to operate ?

Headlines is missing a word. As it reads, this story has to do with length of the C-130.