Turkish Air Force AC-130U Spooky

C-130 “Hercules” is one of the cornerstones of the Aviation History and it may be considered as one of the most successful cargo planes with its innovative design in which traces of “Kelly” Johnson’s works may be found.

After having contracted for 2 prototypes on July 11, 1951, Lockheed committed the first to its maiden flight on August 23, 1954. The marriage of a new and innovative cargo plane design with the great power output of turboprop engines was viewed as very promising by the military, who quickly placed a large order, assigning them to the Tactical Air Command (TAC) as quickly as they became available, starting in December 1956.

The long list of Hercules applications for the more than 1,500 built and delivered to all the military services includes; gunships, drone carrier/launch/control, missile tracking, space capsule retrieval, mapping, search and rescue, STOL research, weather reconnaisance, refueling tanker (including helicopters), assault transport, and command/communications. In addition, a stretched version was built for civilian cargo hauling.

The C-130 was originally designed as an assault transport capable of operating from unpaved, hastily prepared airstrips. It  could transport up to 92 combat troops and their gear or 45,000 pounds of cargo. Where facilities were inadequate, the Hercules could deliver its cargo by parachute or by low altitude ground-cable extraction without landing.

Twenty-eight C-130s were also converted to side-firing gunships, called AC-130 “Gunship” and they were primarily used for night attacks against ground targets during the Vietnam War.

Turkish Air Force is operated 222th Squadron 1974 Cyprus War

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