Warbird Information Exchange

This is not a warbird, but I am looking for info on the different type of nose radome on this WC-130H. This forum is the best place I know of to find this out. These photos were taken 05/10/12 at Tucson IAP.
Thanks for any help
bill word

The WC-130H's all have that nose. It's because they were originally HC-130's. The HC-130H's (not the USCG ones, the original USAF ones) had the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_systemFulton Recovery System[/url] installed and the nose had to be shaped that way for the system.

The 169th AW has a nice fact sheet on the WC-130H's - http://www.169fw.ang.af.mil/resources/f ... p?id=15315

The remaining WC-130H's were part of the Hurricane Hunter's inventory until the delivery of the WC-130J's a couple years ago. Once they were delivered, the 10 WC-130H's were handed off to ANG squadrons where they were stripped of their weather gear and turned into regular haulers.

The "Great Tennessee Airshow" is thisweekend outside Nashville, at Smyrna (KMQY) they will have one of these on display and to tour. The 118th Airlift Wing in Nashville is losing their WC-130's in three months.

Thanks CAP Flyer and Marine Air for the fast response and useful information. That was exactly what I was looking for.
bill word

What's with the hillbilly lock on the door?

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

Respectfully disagree!

Standard procedure when off station. All the other hatches & doors are pinned or otherwise locked from the inside. May not be fancy but it works.

Questions for 130 experts:

Why not replace the old Fulton nose with a standard unit?

Why still call them WC-130s? If the weather geat is removed, they're no longer weather planes. They should be either straight "H" models, or if there is some internal differnce that couldn't be removed... they 'd be given a new designation L, M, P or whatever is available. There is USAF precedence for this...when KC-135s were modified for different uses, they dropped the "K".
I know the designation system has plenty of exceptions...but this does seem straightforward.

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Warbird it is.

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Probably structure built up and extending forward. It isn't just a removable part like the radome is on a standard 130 nose.
If you look close there are rivets or fastners in a line along the metal panels on the top portion and a fairing that covers the lower portion. That top part probably doesn't unbolt and carries into the airframe structure.

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Replacing the nose is wildly expensive and serves no purpose other than cosmetics although it has been done on some of the P-Models and a couple of the HC-130's that were converted to Compass Call.

I actually believe that the WC-130H's that were converted to "slicks" (Trash Haulers) were re-designated C-130H's...or even C-130E's as they were truly a "Super E-Model"...

Oh, and this is definitely a Warbird as it saw time in Vietnam doing CSAR when it was an HC-130H

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I stand corrected about this no being a "Warbird" . My definition of warbird did not include active military aircraft, only those no longer in service. We learn everyday, my problem is remembering what I have learned.
Thanks to everybody for their responses to my post.
bill word

The aircraft in question are still listed as "WC-130H" (there's 10 of them) because there were other modifications done that still makes them structurally different from any "slick" C-130E or C-130H. The main difference is the WC-130H's received up-front modifications in the cockpit and avionics that were retained after the conversion, and the bigger issue is that none of the WC-130H's have SKE or AWADS. This pretty much restricts the aircraft to non-combat, Continental US service. IMHO, the aircraft, once stripped of their weather-specific equipment in the aft compartment should have been redesignated TC-130E's as they're used more as currency and training aircraft than anything else (even though they may also be carrying cargo), but I'm not the USAF.

For the Herc lovers.....

Reykjavik, Iceland



Kulusuk, Greenland



Speaking of warbirds....St John's, NF

Since we are sharing good ole Herky pictures, here are two that I posted a few years back.

NC-130A 55-0022 "Lone Wolf" at Duke Field, Florida.



C-130B FAC 1003.

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Mike in Florida
TSgt USAF Retired
Jan 86 - Sept 08
Aircrew Life Support
"Your Life Is Our Business"
(122X0, 1T1X1, 1P0X1)
NRA Life Member