Hercules: Delete 'Tactical' , Insert 'Strategic'

Asian Aerospace 2000 -- A Lockheed Martin flight crew, delivering one of the 10 new standard length C-130J Hercules transports the service will receive this year, set two new world records last week. Previously unclaimed in the FAI's unlimited and Class C-1N turboprop categories, the records are for speed over a recognized course.

The aircraft carried a 34,000-pound payload-representative of the weight of the USMC's new light armored vehicle-from Pope AFB in North Carolina to Marshall Aerospace's airfield at Cambridge, England, for RAF-specific modifications there before entering service with the RAF Strike Command.
The 3,403-nmi flight was completed in nine hours and 31minutes.

"The conventional wisdom is that the C-130J is strictly a tactical transport but we flew a 17-ton payload almost 4,000 miles at relatively high speed without having to stop for gas. That is a strategic load with strategic legs," Captain Arlen Rens said on landing.

Rens, partnered by co-pilot Ed Delehant, took off with 44,636 pounds of fuel. They handed with sufficient remaining for another two hours and 12 minutes of flight, together with mandatory reserves.

The record-setting flight took place three days after the first of 20 longer C-130Js for the Italian Air Force made its maiden flight. Deliveries begin in the middle of this year.