Keeping the C-130s Flying: Center Wing Box Replacements

Kingbird & Pave Hawk(click to view full) The USA’s C-130E medium transport aircraft first entered service in 1962, so it’s no surprise that some are rather the worse for wear. What did surprise people was how many of them were about to fly their wings off – and not just as a figure of speech. On February 14, 2005, the US Air Force announced that they were grounding nearly 100 C-130E models because of severe fatigue in their wings, including a dozen that had been flying missions in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The C-130 System Program Office at Robins Air Force Base, GA recommended the grounding after inspections of the center wing box structure, which sits atop the fuselage and forms the attachment point for both wings and all four engines, revealed cracks. These kinds of sudden problems come with aging aircraft fleets; as one can see, the effects can be far-reaching. By November 2006, the USAF had kept 47 aircraft under flying restrictions, plus another 30 completely grounded because of the cracks. Other aircraft are expected to wear out as they fly, however, and the replacement program doesn’t expect to get ahead of the “grounding-restriction curve” until […]