Originally Posted by
Rory57
The Germans finally withdrew their last C-160D Transall earlier this year, the French having already withdrawn all their aircraft but it's not quite the end of the Transall yet, the Turkish still have a few in service, one as a support aircraft for their display team, the Turkish stars and two ELINT converted C-160, that will be replaced shortly. Also three of the ex-German C-160D have gone onto the Australian civil register and are seemingly going to be converted as fire fighting aircraft. The first one transited through Malta 25/08/2023 on the trip down to Australia.
With regard to all the smoke on start up, I would suggest that is completely normal for any jet turbine that has been been out of service for a period as an inhibitor is used to keep the engine serviceable and when first started, that is always the effect. We had the same clouds of smoke on start up on both Boeing 747-400s and Boeing 777 after an engine change on the first ground run.