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The Air Force’s largest and only strategic airlifter
As the Air Force’s largest and only strategic airlifter, the C-5 Galaxy can carry more cargo farther distances than any other aircraft. With a payload of six Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs) or up to five helicopters, the C-5 can haul twice as much cargo as any other airlifter.
The C-5 has the distinctive high T-tail, 25-degree wing sweep, and four turbofan engines mounted on pylons beneath the wings.
The C-5 has 12 internal wing tanks with a total capacity of 51,150 gallons (194,370 liters) of fuel — enough to fill 6 1/2 regular-size railroad tank cars. A full fuel load weighs 332,500 pounds (150,820 kilograms). A C-5 with a cargo load of 270,000 pounds (122,472 kilograms) can fly 2,150 nautical miles, offload, and fly to a second base 500 nautical miles away from the original destination — all without aerial refueling. With aerial refueling, the aircraft’s range is limited only by crew endurance.
Contraptions for slowing the aircraft
Also the C-5 Galaxy cargo aircraft is one of the few modern aircraft that uses reverse thrust in flight.
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 Galaxy thrust reversers wouldn’t come out of reverse on landing
‘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 credit: Senior Airman William Coleman / U.S. Air Force
