C-130 Castle Air Museum gets a new project.

[Spectre_I]

Just came in and donated Friday. Hadn't flown for 13 years. Took about a year and a half to get her airworthy for the ferry. Probably won't be out on display for a couple years.

This old gal has quite a history, according to our curation folks. This is an "A" model, and was one of the Four Horsemen. We will be restoring it to that look and condition.

On Final:



Taxiing to retirement home:



Shut down for the last time:

[JohnB]

Circa 1997 an A Model was put on display near NSA in Maryland as a memorial to the crew lost when an RC-130 was shot down by the Russians in the early 60s (they do seem to love shooting down unarmed aircraft).
It was still active at that time, before putting it on display they found a set of three-blade "A" props.

I wonder where they found those (does the AF Museum store stuff like that?) and I was impressed that someone notice and took the time to make it correct.

[Chris Brame]

C-130A 56-473/N473TM as one of the Four Horsemen, circa 1960:

Still image (color corrected a bit), from here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjZMWI77b84

[sandiego89]

Nice! I wonder if some 3 bladed props could be found. I always do a double take when I see a herky bird with the original props.

[Pat Carry]

A nice addition there!

[Spectre_I]

Nice! I wonder if some 3 bladed props could be found. I always do a double take when I see a herky bird with the original props.

Yes they can, and we've already got them. They'll be on this aircraft when it goes out to display. We'll restore her back to original condition as much as possible.

[Malo83]

Was this the same bird sitting at Visalia airport?

[sledge39]

...hauling retardant at San Bernardino, CA (SBD) 17 Oct 1999...

[Spectre_I]

Was this the same bird sitting at Visalia airport?

Yes (sort of), Sequoia Field.

[sandiego89]

Nice! I wonder if some 3 bladed props could be found. I always do a double take when I see a herky bird with the original props.

Yes they can, and we've already got them. They'll be on this aircraft when it goes out to display. We'll restore her back to original condition as much as possible.

Great- she will look great with the retro props and scheme!

[APG85]

Nice! I wonder if some 3 bladed props could be found.

Almost impossible now...

[K5DH]

Cool project. Will she get a "Roman" nose or retain the radar nose?

[Spectre_I]

Cool project. Will she get a "Roman" nose or retain the radar nose?

The goal will be to make it as it appears in the picture above, taken from this video:

This is airplane 473 in the video.
https://youtu.be/qjZMWI77b84

She's got the radar nose there. All of our other pictures of it throughout its service life have it with a black radar nose. So, that's what it'll get. In fact, it's already on it

Last edited by Spectre_I on Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Spectre_I]

Nice! I wonder if some 3 bladed props could be found.

Almost impossible now...

In our case, the donor had them.

[APG85]

That plane never had a "Roman Nose"...