Simviation Forums

What is the largest Marine Corps aircraft ever to land on a USN carrier? Also, which carrier did it land on?

USS Forrestal in October 1963 using a Marine Corps KC-130F

"Look Ma! No Hook" was written on the stbd side of the plane in big block letters.

The designated cargo dummy was not available so the crew substituted a Cat bulldozer to bring the cargo weight up.

The pilot received a DFC for his efforts.

Any pics of that?

Yeah, theres a few in one of the Air & Space magazine a few issues back. They're just little one though.
Heres a few I found using google's image search.

Did they launch it with the catapult system?

No catapult, free deck launch.

Cool!! (we must try that in FS!)

Somebody said that carrier pilots were the best in the world, and they must be or there wouldn't be any of them left alive.

From www.globalsecurity.org

[quote] Navy Lt. Jim Flatley made history in 1963 by landing a C-130 transport on the deck of an aircraft carrier. It wasn

I confess, sometimes I get a little shaky landing on an asphalt runway surrounded by dirt, to even think of putting down on a carrier would make me a we bit skeered.

Anyone who has that kind of airplane control is A1 in my book.

I believe the C-130 in question retired to a museum sometime in 2005...