Amphibious MC-130J?

[chopper2004]

AFSOC MC-130J anyone? Few decades ago, an amphibious C-130 / L-100 was proposed by Lockheed…

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40694/amphibious-mc-130j-transport-is-on-special-operations-commands-wishlist?fbclid=IwAR1Nq7aG6V6ewmFfOOqTu0ac3c58L9XQzwJYiflxfm ZKAj_QzU_jIux0Fhw
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/960x540/577ec930_d561_4286_a574_f30857594ef6_79a3e9ea727b5772c939343 d2edc72e8d2dbfd33.jpeg

[Haraka]

Part of the Hercules On Water (HOW) program.

[Ken Scott]

Those floats would give you quite some drag index.

[sandiego89]

Hmmm, looks like the floats are flat on the inner surfaces, perhaps suggesting they telescope in to come together and give our floaty-Herk a downright svelte profile while in transit.

or do they go up the side of the fuselage to allow the normal wheels to still be used for land ops?

[OldLurker]

Of course there was this:
Lockheed C-130H Hercules (L-382) - Thailand - Air Force | Aviation Photo #2050491 | Airliners.net (https://www.airliners.net/photo/Thailand---Air/Lockheed-Martin-C-130H/2050491)

[OldLurker]

Didn't Lockheed also look at a flying-boat design? A float-plane, as illustrated above, would need giant floats to support anything like the payload that can be carried by a Hercules landplane, and the drag would be enormous, surely much more than a stepped hull and outriggers. Compare the Short Sunderland, Blohm & Voss BV238 or the smaller Grumman Albatross (all those were WWII aircraft and no doubt the technology has improved since then).

[Haraka]

Yup! The original HOW.

[Compass Call]

C-130 Float Plane by Lockheed