It’s a big deal for a big plane.
Lockheed Martin in Marietta will be celebrating 50 years of the massive C-5 Galaxy being used by the U.S. Air Force on Tuesday. Gov. Nathan Deal is set to attend.
The C-5 is billed as the largest strategic airlifter the Air Force has.
How big? It has a 222-foot wingspan.
According to Lockheed, the aircraft can hold five helicopters or 25,844,746 ping pong balls.
From 2017 | Lockheed Martin rolls out new cargo aircraft at Marietta plant
Credit: Joey Ivansco / jivansco@ajc.com
Credit: Joey Ivansco / jivansco@ajc.com
It can go 5,000 nautical miles with a full payload of 122,000 pounds without needing to refuel.
President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke in a closed event at Lockheed when the first C-5 rolled off the line March 2, 1968.
Bob Harrell attended the unveiling for The Atlanta Constitution and wrote some quick observations (apparently he also walked into the wrong room looking for the coffee machine and found himself “nose to visor nose” with the C-5).
“Every member of the crew should be required to wear a parachute in the cockpit ... even when the plane doesn’t leave the ground,” he wrote.
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Gen. James Ferguson, commander of Air Force Systems Command, spoke as the C-5 rolled into the sunshine. “Your first impression is one of size. The lasting impression will be one of service.”
It seems so.
According to Lockheed: The C-5 flew 10,600 tons of supplies to Israel during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, delivered helicopters used in the attempted rescue of hostages in Iran in 1980, and flew 7,000 hours during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.
One of the C-5 models holds 89 records certified by the World Air Sports Federation, which is the most by any aircraft type in the world, according to Lockheed. It has been used to ferry presidential motorcades.
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