The Hercules delivered heavy cargo to isolated airstrips - often rough, unsurfaced tracks hewn out of the jungle, which in dry weather were just loose dust and in the monsoon season were covered with a thick layer of slimy clay. Nevertheless pilots braved such landing grounds in all weathers, sometimes at night and often under enemy fire. Pilots would come in very low in order to evade the anti-aircraft guns and then dive steeply as soon as the landing strip came into sight. This was a landing technique made possible firstly by the Hercules' thrust reversal, which meant that the angle of the propellers could be adjusted to create air pressure on the front of the plane, and secondly by its powerful anti-lock wheel brakes, which gave the Hercules a stopping distance of 985 feet. Pilots often tried to further reduce this distance by engaging reverse thrusters when the 'plane was still 3 feet off the ground! Such treatment would have demolished any other plane, but the Hercules was built to withstand this kind of handling.

An experienced ground crew could unload a Hercules in 20 minutes, but even that could seem like an eternity when under enemy attack and - as the Hercules had a reputation amongst crews as a 'grenade magnet' - they devised various methods for reducing the ground time as far as possible. LAPES, or Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System, involved the Hercules coming in fast and low over the airstrip with the loading ramp lowered and launching a parachute, which would drag out the cargo. The CDS, or Container Delivery System, would be used where no airstrip was available and cargo would simply be dropped on parachutes from altitudes of between 590 and 9,600 feet. Cargos delivered in this way would even include light tanks and bulldozers, with weights of up to 25 tons!

Regular cargos for the Hercules included troops, food provisions, ammunition and various vehicles, but by for the most unusual cargo must be Bonnie and Clyde - 2 elephants destined for duty at a sawmill. The animals were anaesthetised prior to transportation and parachutes attached to them, because it was clear that if the creatures awoke and decided to disembark early, there was little prospect of the crew being able to dissuade them!

The flexibility of the Hercules was utilised to the full in Vietnam, as the'plane was used for battle command, evacuation and emergency medical missions - as well as for many other purposes which remain classified information to this day. One particularly bizarre and short-lived project for the Hercules was the dropping of vast quantities of soap flakes onto routes used by communist infiltrators from North Vietnam. The theory was that in the monsoon season the suds would lather to such an extent that the roads would be rendered impassable for both vehicles and horses - needless to say the project proved unsuccessful!

The most formidable of the Hercules planes was the AC-130 Gunship - aptly named indeed. Its combination of 7.62mm machine guns, 20mm and 40mm automatic weapons and a 105mm weapon meant that it was the most heavily armed aircraft in aviation history - a record the gunship still holds today.

Overloading the Hercules was very easy, due to its large, square cargo hold. Proof of this fact was provided in 1975, when the last Herk left Vietnam. Just as the Communist troops invaded the air base at Tan Son Nhut, the Hercules took off with its cargo of refugees, needing every inch of the 11,500 feet runway to become airborne. The reason for this became clear when the 'plane was unloaded in Thailand and it was discovered that there were 452 refugees aboard and the excess weight over 9 tons!

So clearly, 80 skydivers are no challenge for this aircraft!

Martin Lindstrom