Quick Hercules question

[noisy]

Q Is there a C-130 on public display anywhere in Europe and in particular in Britain?

well I did say 'quick'!

[treadigraph]

Certainly not in Britain - though I stand to be corrected!

[Dan Winterland]

'Quick' Hercules question? No one can describe the Hercules as being 'quick'!

[treadigraph]

Quicker than the Beverley, believe it or not, its contemporary! Mind you, EVERYTHING was quicker than the Beverley, even steam trains...

[noisy]

Thanks guys, It's just that I hear that XV208 is to be scrapped in 2007. I think she would look quite good at Cosford.

[Cornish Jack]

Treadders
How unkind to the Bev
Accurate !! but unkind
Limited speed brought home, on one occasion, by being overtaken on French airways by a Hastings .... the Hastings was operating on three .... smartass, showoffs!!!

[Bof]

I thought they took the ASIs out of the Beverley and fitted calendars!

[Kolibear]

Was the Beverley faster than the Belfast though?

[JW411]

Very definitely not! The Belfast puttered along at 275 kts TAS. The Beverley would have come apart at that speed.

Did you know that the Belfast was fitted with a Mach meter?

Quite what the designer had in mind is beyond me.

[Opssys]

I have been following this thread with interest and have enjoyed the side discusions, especially the Beverley being ovetaken by the Hastings on three engines (how humiliating), but reverting to the Hercules.

I think it is important that a 'pensioned off' Hercules is put on display in one of the RAF Museums. Plus a display board with a list of all the tasks the RAF have used the type for and the 'campaigns' the type has been invovled in to date.

RAF Transport Crews are too often undervalued outside the service, but over the years they and their aircraft have 'been in harms way' many times (often with zero, or minimal media attenton), plus the Humanitarian Missions, which whilst not combat, have been 'difficult' for crews and aircraft.

Using a Hercules as 'centrepiece' this could be acknowledged publicly.
DIH

[JDK]

The RAAF Museum, much smaller than the RAF Museum(s) has two Hercules on display what I think of as the 'three blader' (A model) and the 'four blader' (H)

The 'A' model is used as part of school group tours, so they get a chance to assemble in the hold(!) and a look in the cockpit. Due to their size, they are sadly both outside (with the Museum's Bristol Freighter - now there's REALLY slow) though the second Herc is cocooned, and technically 'stored' - thus not on the website) but you can see it over the fence when visiting the museum.

See here: http://www.raafmuseum.com.au/raaf2/html/hercules.htm

[treadigraph]

Ahh, I like the Bev really...!

Ins't XV208 the famous "Snoopy" and haven't I read (here somehere?) that she was going to be deconverted back to C.1K status?

We certainly should preserve one eventually, either at Cosford or Duxford.

Edited to say "sort of right"...

Thread about Snoopy

[ORAC]

There was an article about this last week. Snoopy is to be converted into the test bed for the A400M engine and will then fly a trials programme (only about 40 hours IIRC). The modifications required will render it uneconomic to return it to standard configuration and it will subsequently be scrapped (one presumes after being stripped for parts).

[noisy]

I'd love to see this airframe at Cosford. I think it would go well in the R&D collection. However, I can't see it happening as there will be loads of useful spares in the aircraft that the people at Lyneham will be interested in. Also, it's not a 'line of battle' airframe and so not truly representative of a squadron aircraft.

We should preserve a herky bird. But should we preserve this one? I myself believe so.

[Blacksheep]

I thought the RAF had loads of them "preserved" at Lyneham until the A400 is ready?