Originally Posted by
Brian 48nav
Just been delving into a couple of books - the first Herc' for the RAF, XV176, made its maiden flight at Marietta ( the Lockheed plant ) on 19th Oct' 1966.
XV177 was the first handed over to the RAF in a brief ceremony at Marietta on 16th Dec' 1966. It was flown by an RAF crew ( Mel Bennett, Dave Wright as pilots, Cyril Loughheed Nav', Fred Pennycott Flt Eng and John Sutton as AQM ) to Marshalls at Cambridge on Dec' 19th in silver livery. After painting and fitting of more flight deck equipment, 177 went to Boscombe in Feb' '67 followed by 178 in March.
Thetford's 'Aircraft of the RAF' gives April as date of first delivery to 242 OCU at Thorney Island and Andy Muniandy's book 'Hercules - the RAF workhorse' gives the date as 3rd May.
Initially 6 were delivered to 242 and my logbook shows 5 of them as 176,179,182,183 and 189 for the first part of 4 Course with 180,185,186 and 187 being there in November. Maybe some swaps took place with Lyneham as 36 Sqn formed there in August.
AA62
Sorry, no more photos found.
Interesting that the RAAF equipped with C130A models (first non USA operator) eight years before the RAF got their first C130.