Lockheed Martin's Bob Price claims he's the luckiest man in the U.S. company. His job: director of flight operations, with responsibility for nursing the new C-130J Hercules tactical transport through its flight development from first becoming airborne on April 6, 1996, to achieving full Part 25 FAA certification for civil and military operation, now expected later this week. This follows 1,700 flights totaling more than 4,300 hours by 11 test aircraft, which reached speeds of Mach 0.68 and 360KTAS, heights of up to 42,000 feet, endurance runs of more 10 hours, and range exceeding 4,000 nmi, at takeoff weights up to 175,000 pounds.

Price also gets to fly the C-130J for its Farnborough display debut, following formal delivery at the Marietta, Georgia, factory of the first of the RAF's 25 Lockheed Martin C-130J on order from a $1.75 billion MoD contract, on August 24. This was nearly two years later than originally scheduled in November 1996, because of software, stall symmetry and fin anti-icing and de-icing systems' problems. Its daily displays, however, indicate that the aircraft was well worth waiting for.

The RAF's first C-130J-30 seen at Farnborough is the prototype Hercules 2 (c/n 5408), which arrived at the UK's Defense Evaluation & Research Agency at Boscombe Down on August 26, before flying on to here for the SBAC Show. With its original flight-test instrumentation, it will undergo initial service trials after the show with DERA at Boscombe, where it will be joined by the second RAF C-130J-30 in late 1998. Future RAF Hercules 2s will be delivered to Marshalls at Cambridge for painting, installation of the air refueling probe, and minor technical modifications before being handed over for military service.

Some 40 C-130Js have so far been completed by Lockheed Martin at Marietta, apart from minor details. Deliveries are beginning of the first of 28 C/EC/KC/WC-130Js so far ordered for the U.S. services and of the 12 stretched -30 versions bought by the RAAF, among 20 Hercules 2s to reach customers by the year-end. All 15 of the RAF's stretched C-130J-30 C.Mk 4s and 10 shorter-fuselaged C-130J C.Mk 5s are scheduled for delivery by early 2000, and options are held for a further five.

Limited RAF service-entry clearance, excluding tactical, paratroop and air-refueling operations pending further trials, is expected in early 1999, when the Italian air force will also receive the first of its 18 C-130Js. In addition to firm orders for 83, with a current fly-away unit cost of $50 million to $60 million, Lockheed Martin is now claiming options for another 63. The company says it's still optimistic concerning possible export orders for up to 400 C-130Js, from potential market requirements for about 700 new tactical transports over the next decade.

By John Fricker