Aircraft: The Biggest Bird

Lockheed Aircraft Corp.’s C-5 Galaxy military transport measures barely 10 yds. shorter than a football field, sports a tail assembly as tall as a six-story building, and has a cargo compartment that is longer than the Wright brothers’ first flight off the side of North Carolina’s Kill Devil Hill sand dune. And it flies. At Georgia’s Dobbins Air Force Base one morning last week, following an overnight postponement because of last-minute technical problems, the first C-5 lifted gently off the runway for a 94-minute test. Aside from some minor difficulty with the landing gear, the world’s largest aircraft, exulted Lockheed Test Pilot Leo J. Sullivan, performed in a way that was “phenomenally beautiful.”

Lockheed officials and Air Force brass were equally enthusiastic. Developed under a $1.9 billion contract with the Air Force, which has 58 of the planes ordered for delivery by 1971 (Lockheed hopes to see that order eventually increased to at least 200), the 540-m.p.h. C-5 is both bigger and faster than Russia’s AN-22, until now the largest aircraft in operation. With a maximum payload of 265,000 Ibs. and a range, when fully loaded, of 2,875 miles, the Lockheed plane is powered by four General Electric fanjet TF-39s, the world’s most powerful aircraft engines.

The C5, which is capable of carrying either 750 troops or the largest piece of Army combat equipment (a 69-ton shovel crane), has 28 wheels to distribute its weight so that it can land on remote dirt airstrips or even pastures. The plane promises to revolutionize military logistics and strategy. Inspecting the craft at Lockheed’s Marietta, Ga., plant back in March, President Johnson noted that 88 ordinary cargo planes would be necessary to move an infantry brigade from Hawaii to Viet Nam—and the brigade’s heaviest equipment would have to go by ship. By contrast, just 20 C-5s could handle the whole operation. The plane, said the President, ushers in a “new era in America’s power.”

1,000-Passenger Potential. It might also signal a new era in civilian-pas-senger and freight transportation. Lockheed plans to put out a nonmilitary version of the C-5—the L-500—by 1971. In an all-passenger configuration, the L-500 could conceivably carry up to 1,000 people, which would allow airlines to slice New York-London fares as low as $75.

Initially, Lockheed plans to produce and sell the L-500 as an all-cargo plane only—but the economics should be equally dramatic. Airlines presently account for less than 1% of all North Atlantic freight traffic, but have been making encouraging inroads on ocean shipping on certain types of goods—no-tably clothing. The L-500’s huge payload in its 121-ft.-long cargo area would enable airlines to carry freight for as little as 2¢ per ton-mile, low enough to give surface shipping a great deal of competition on a broader range of cargo.

Planes even bigger than the C-5 seem certain to come. The Air Force and U.S. manufacturers are studying the possibility of constructing an aircraft capable of carrying a 1,000,000-lb. pay-load—nearly four times that of the C5. About the only factor limiting the size of future planes is the ability of existing airport facilities to handle them. In view of Lockheed’s success in producing its huge bird, none of the foreseeable obstacles to even bigger planes seem insurmountable.