Dang but this is one ginormous plane C5

[gjl711]

Didn't think anything could make a 747 look small but this beast to truly enormous.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4313244185_d1c17d25d1_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4313244259_3decd35c9d_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4313244119_63036a41b1_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4313244063_79fabfc6ef_b.jpg

[m3n00b]

Nice shots.


The 747 and C-5 are very similar in size.

[kona77]

Great shot, love the gear coming down.

[FlyingPhotog]

Like a giant flying Grey Card!

Nice Series...

[gjl711]

The 747 and C-5 are very similar in size.THanx.. It sure didn't seam that way.

Great shot, love the gear coming down.Thanx, it sure does look like a complex process.

Like a giant flying Grey Card!

Nice Series...Thanx. It is, a flying 18% gray card. :)

[Desertraptor]

Nice shots, nice angles

[Slimsphotos]

Nice shots. Remember having a look around one while it was at Brize Norton a few years back while I was still serving. Got to pop my head out the cockpit hatch on top, bloody long way down, and the tail still towers above you.

Chris

[Loodachris]

Great shots! This plane and others from the Air force base close by just circle around my house almost daily :( Amazing how something that big can stay in the air.

[Quarantine]

very nice captures

[txduggan]

Awesome!

I live a spit from the NYANG at Stewart and only have ONE shot!

Huzzah to the landing gear shot!

-TomD

[gjl711]

Thanx all..
Great shots! This plane and others from the Air force base close by just circle around my house almost daily :( Amazing how something that big can stay in the air.
These were taken at Lackland air-force base TX. They were practicing take offs and landings I think.

[monk3y]

which is bigger this one or the Antonov? i havent seen both though...

[RadAL]

the An225 is the biggest.

[xMClass]

Love the last one. I like the noise these birds make.

[Aviation Junkie]

Great shots! I used to see these fly in ahead of GW when he'd visit his crawford ranch. Still see them from time to time. They make a very unique sound. The AN225 is the only thing larger than the C-5; however, i'm not sure how the A380 sizes up to this monster.

[gjl711]

Thanx for the comments. They do make a unique sound and look as if they are just hanging in the air.

[wtlwdwgn]

Terrific images. That thing's gotta lotta wheels. Gives new meaning to the term "aluminum overcast" which originated with the B-36. If you think the C-5 is big how about the AN-225 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225)? :shock:

[fotobird]

I love the C-17's. Talk about a massive plane!

[FlyingPhotog]

Terrific images. That thing's gotta lotta wheels. Gives new meaning to the term "aluminum overcast" which originated with the B-36. If you think the C-5 is big how about the AN-225 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225)? :shock:

"Aluminum Overcast" is a term that pre-dates the B-36.

They used it to refer to the "Thousand Plane Raids" of the 8th Air Force out of England in WWII.

[mathogre]

Like a giant flying Grey Card!

Nice Series...

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!! :lol: Indeed it is.

[WaFp]

the An225 is the biggest.

1.3 MILLION POUNDS big!


the AN-124 is actually slightly larger (than the C-5 max weight wise). it has a max take off weight of 893,000lbs vs the C-5s 840,000 (EWP weight). despite this, Fred still rocks! it has been an honor and privilege to fly Fred for the last 3 years!

i actually flew that Kelly jet when i went through training. the pics are awesome and yes, i'm biased! :D

[ScottsGT]

My Dad was part of the USAF design & testing team back in the late '60's when the C-5 was being designed. He had a lot of input on the front landing gear mechanism since it originally retracted up into a big box that blocked the front ramp as the nose sweeps up. He was a Loadmaster in the USAF, the second to make CMSgt. in the USAF by the way...
I really liked the old two tone white upper/gray bottom they were originally painted. I'm hoping one day I get a chance to get some shots of one in the air like that. Brings back memories of when the first one flew into Charleston AFB. Pilot did a LOW pass over the crowd from behind everyone, circled and landed losing 2 or 3 wheels in the process! Yes, lost the wheels. As in they came OFF the airplane and rolled down the runway into the woods!

[FLphotoguy]

I love the C-5s. I saw them do a demo at Westover ARB in Massachusetts a few years ago and they are very maneuverable for a big bird.

[WaFp]

Brings back memories of when the first one flew into Charleston AFB. Pilot did a LOW pass over the crowd from behind everyone, circled and landed losing 2 or 3 wheels in the process! Yes, lost the wheels. As in they came OFF the airplane and rolled down the runway into the woods!

first of all, tell you dad thanks for helping to make an amazing airplane!

second....ROFL, the wheels came off!!! :D:D

[ScottsGT]

first of all, tell you dad for helping to make an amazing airplane!

second....ROFL, the wheels came off!!! :D:D

I'll tell him! He's now 80, but still with us. FWIW, he was the FIRST loadmaster to ever load a C-130 too. For the demo before the High Brass for Lockheed. He broke the plane too!

[gordonb]

They're the biggest things on Diego Garcia.

Gordon

[On_looker]

Saw one on the ground at an air show and had to shoot from way back to capture the whole plane

[FLphotoguy]

The 747 and C-5 are very similar in size.

But the C-5 is larger and quite impressive.

[gjl711]

Impressive it is.

[gkarris]

When you can use a WA when it's flying... :eek:

[tanz1983]

It's not too impressive wih onl a 70% take off rate. I loved o hate those planes when I served. They were only good to jump out of at high altitudes. And they were noisy as hell due to their jet rotors. Luckily, they are beig modified with bigger and better engines.

[RDKirk]

He was a Loadmaster in the USAF, the second to make CMSgt. in the USAF by the way...

The second loadmaster to make CMSgt or the second person in the USAF to make CMSgt?

I never met a loadmaster who did not love his job.

[wardie]

From a long time ago (approx '88 ).

Grey & White C-5A at Richmond RAAF base. Also in shot are USAF C-141B Starlifter, RAAF C130E & H, RSAF C130 and RAAF Caribou. Taken from the 486SQN hangar roof
http://www.jmbphotography.com.au/gallery2/d/1758-1/C5A_Richmond.jpg

C-5A at Richmond RAAF base smiling for the crowd
http://www.jmbphotography.com.au/gallery2/d/1761-1/C5A_Smile.jpg

[FlyingPhotog]

Nice Find Wardie!!

This was back when military aircraft had some character!!

[gjl711]

I love the smiling C5. :)

[markmizzou]

Funny stories -- I watched the first one ever to land at Kadena AFB Okinawa. The big beast landed and broke the front landing gear. There it sat for two days till another plane from the states could bring something over big enough to bring up the nose to repair the front gear. This was in 1970 or 1971. This was the two years I was stationed at Kadena as a technician and a crew member on the RC-135M's

[wardie]

When I first saw a C-5A at Richmond where I was on the flightline, I marshaled it into it's parking place where it shut down and the loadie (or Flight Eng) came out on his long lead, stood in front of it and YELLED "Kneel M*** F***er" and loh and behold, it did!

[FlyingPhotog]

OMG That's so great!

[gjl711]

When I first saw a C-5A at Richmond where I was on the flightline, I marshaled it into it's parking place where it shut down and the loadie (or Flight Eng) came out on his long lead, stood in front of it and YELLED "Kneel M*** F***er" and loh and behold, it did!What a great story. :)

[ScottsGT]

The second loadmaster to make CMSgt or the second person in the USAF to make CMSgt?

I never met a loadmaster who did not love his job.

Second Loadmaster to make Chief. Ever see the wratcheting tie down strap that is in every WalMart, auto parts store and truck stop....
Yep, Dad invented it. Apparently he has a lot of inventions he made while in the USAF that I keep learning about everytime I have a conversation with him.

[RDKirk]

Second Loadmaster to make Chief. Ever see the wratcheting tie down strap that is in every WalMart, auto parts store and truck stop....
Yep, Dad invented it. Apparently he has a lot of inventions he made while in the USAF that I keep learning about everytime I have a conversation with him.

That would have been before the USAF suggestion program (in which they paid a member 10% of whatever they saved the first year they used his suggestion.

I knew a USAF camera technician who had invented an automatic exposure system for the SR-71 and U-2 in the early 70s. Before then, exposure was estimated purely by sun angles, which changed enough during the missions that often as much as half the mission was improperly exposed. Sometimes someone goofed on the initial setting and the whole mission was ruined. This cost literally millions of dollars per year.

But this guy--he was a tech sergeant at the time--invented an auto-exposure system that had to have saved well over a million dollars in the first year it was used. I was in Hq SAC in the early 80s and got a call from Hq USAF inquiring whether his device was actually worth the $50,000 they had calculated he should be paid under the suggestion program--I think that was actually the maximum payout possible.

The guy was a chief by then (I knew him and the story of his invention), and my response was, "You haven't paid him yet?"