The Galaxy
The C-5 Galaxy is one of the largest aircraft in the world and the largest airlifter in the Air Force inventory. The aircraft can carry a fully equipped combat-ready military unit to any point in the world on short notice and then provide the supplies required to help sustain the fighting force.
The C-5 has a greater capacity than any other US Air Force (USAF) airlifter. It has the ability to carry 36 standard pallets and 81 troops simultaneously. The Galaxy is also capable of carrying any of the Army’s air-transportable combat equipment, including such bulky items as the 74-ton mobile scissors bridge. It can also carry outsize and oversize cargo over intercontinental ranges and can take off or land in relatively short distances. Ground crews are able to load and off-load the C-5 simultaneously at the front and rear cargo openings, reducing cargo transfer times.
Also the C-5 Galaxy cargo aircraft is one of the few modern aircraft that uses reverse thrust in flight.
Marvelous contraptions for slowing the aircraft
Jay Lacklen, former USAF C-5 pilot and author of three books, Flying the Line: An Air Force Pilot’s Journey, Flying the Line: An Air Force Pilot’s Journey Volume Two: Military Airlift Command and Flying the Line: An Air Force Pilot’s Journey Volume Three: Air Mobility Command, tells this interesting story in the last book of the trilogy.
‘Thrust reversers [TRs] are marvelous contraptions for slowing the aircraft during landing or a high speed aborted takeoff, or to increase the descent rate while airborne. On the C-5, the two inboard engines are used for descent while, on the ground, all four can be used to aid stopping.
‘When used for landing, the reversers must be activated quickly since their greatest effect is at high speed. Delaying deployment on landing defeats the purpose of using them. When used in the air, the pilot must snap them into the reverse position or he may get one into reverse and not the other.
‘And, then, things can go wrong when using reversers.
C-5 thrust reversers wouldn’t come out of reverse
‘As a relatively new C-5 copilot, I saw a doozie of an incident descending into Rota AB, Spain. We arrived from the west and approach control had held us at altitude for a while to avoid other traffic. Then, they wanted us to descent immediately to 2000 feet over the ocean to get down on time for the approach.
‘Out came the reversers as we dropped like a rock from the sky. Passing 3000 feet, the pilot took the thrust reversers out of reverse, or at least he tried. They wouldn’t come out of reverse! We were now a relatively heavy plane with 100,000 lbs. of cargo, on two positive thrust engines fighting against two reversed engines, to arrest our sink rate toward the water. The pilot gave me the plane to fly as he wrestled with the inboard throttles. I took the plane and leveled off as well as I could, but the airspeed dropped steadily toward stall speed as the nose rose higher and higher.’
Lacklen concludes;
‘Thankfully, after about twenty seconds, the pilot managed to get the engines back to positive power, and then up to max thrust to extricate us form a near inadvertent ditching situation.’
Photo by Senior Airman William Coleman / U.S. Air Force
