The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy: Moving the US Military

That's not "Fat Albert". Fat Albert is the Blue Angels support aircraft, a C-130.

When my team was preparing to leave Kuwait in the mid-1990s, we experienced delays of several days. Each day, having to meet up at a staging area at sunrise, only to be told to you back to our tents each morning, but not unpack, since we'd be leaving the next day. On around day 5, we were finally driven to Kuwait City International Airport where a C-5 was waiting for us. But then we sat around for 6 or seven hours, wondering what was taking so long. The aircraft commander walked over to our group and explained that one of the four engines was inoperative. He said we could wait for a replacement engine to be shipped in from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, which would take about a week to arrive and be swapped out, or we could just fly out to Ramstein on 3 engines, swap out the bad engine overnight in Germany and be on our way to the US in about 24 hours. He said the latter was perfectly safe, but he wanted to inform us and give us the option to wait in Kuwait if we preferred. Needless to say, we unanimously voted to fly to Germany on 3 engines. This was my third flight on a C-5 and I honestly couldn't tell that one of the engines was shut down. My fourth and final flight on a Galaxy was from Ramstein, Germany to Dover AFB in Delaware. Some years later, after going from active duty to a reserve unit, I was stationed at Travis AFB and spent a lot of time on the ground with the dozens of C-5s there at the time (many now replaced by C-17s). One night, I saw one taxiing in with it's right wing navigation light apparently burned out. I drove over to it as it was shutting down and realized it was actually missing about an entire 6 feet of its right wingtip. I asked the crew chief about it and he said they were taxiing in Kuwait and despite being cleared on that taxiway by air traffic control, their right wingtip struck a hangar. They simply went back to the ramp and had maintenance remove the last 6 feet of the wing, stowed it in the cargo bay and flew back to Travis to repair it. I've always been awestruck by the C-5 and I miss hearing the distinctive and ghostly howl of their engines (particulary of the A and B models - the refurbished and re-engined C-5M models don't produce that same unique howl).

Probably one of my favorite uses I've ever seen of this plane is actually in humanitarian efforts. As seen in Afghanistan: They can hold A LOT of refugees.

I live near Altus AFB, I see these flying all the time.

When they do reach the end of their life span. What will replace them because their capabilities are already crazy.

Instead of Russian Dolls, do it with aircraft fuselages.....

One of these monsters was at an air show I attended years ago. They had the nose and tail doors open and the public was allowed walk thru. It was very impressive. :)

Seen one flying out of Dublin a month ago,massive flying machine.

How do you block this bullshit

F.R.E.D. is a new one to me 😂 we used to have B-52s stationed here...aka: B.U.F.F. 😅

There's a C5 ARB near me. Before the last engine upgrade, (quieter) you ALWAYS knew when one was coming in or leaving the Springfield MA area. In 2003 they were VERY busy.

ghost bat, loyal wingman, Valkyrie

Its armored vehicle launched bridge, not land bridge

My dad was an airplane mechanic at that exact same Air Force base in Oklahoma, and the C-5 was one of the airplanes that he got to work on. He says that a full-grown man could literally stand upright in the jet intake, those engines were/are so huge!

Seen one on Sunday at RIAT2023 near Swindon UK. AWESOME.

Always interesting and informative.

Can you do the Boeing C-17?

You improperly stated that the C-5 was the replacement for the propeller driven C-133 Cargo Master. The Air Force was already flying the jet propelled C-141 Starlifter since 1963, and it was the C-141 that was the replacement for the C-133, not the C-5. The C-5 did not have it's first flight until 1968.

My uncle worked at Lockheed Marietta. In the early 70's, he would take me to their airfield to watch the C130 and other planes landing for repairs and maintenance. I was fascinated with how these planes could still fly with some of the battle damage they had - this was during the Vietnam War.
One particular trip, I watched a C5A landing. It was incredible watching this massive airplane growing ever larger as it approached the runway. It was mind boggling that something that huge could fly.
On a separate trip, he took me inside one of these behemoths. I got to go to the cockpit (there is actually and elevator) where I was 5 stories off the ground (the tail is about 7 stories tall). It is and experience that remains vivid to this day some 52 years later. Thank you Uncle Mac, I still remember!

I live near the Lockheed facility in Marietta, Georgia. We regularly get to see C-130s in the sky, but every now snd then we'll catch a C-5 Galaxy up there - even from the ground, they look absolutely immense.

i thought this was vsauce for a second lmao

นี่แหละเป็นสาเหตุที่ต้องห้ามเข้าประเทศไทยเป็นเวลา 2 ปีมันไม่ใช่การลงทุนมันเป็นการทำลายล้าง

If not already noted, at the four minute mark Simon says 3,000 pounds but the screen shows 300,000 pounds🧐

What is it you don’t know shit about? So I can go watch that!

Say what you will about it being ridiculous, when the Gulf War broke out there was a constant stream of them over my house. They would come from all over the USA to Westover AFB Springfield, MA, rest the crews, fuel up (gas pipeline from New Haven CT up to the base) and then head off to Europe. Seemed like one an hour for weeks. It was impressive. When you absolutely positively need to have a war someplace you don't have an army.

So it can lift way less than the 124 and WAAAAAY less than the 224 (rip legend)

ok v-sauce

I was fortunate to see a C141 and a C5 in the early 90s when I was in the Civil Air Patrol at "Camp" at Roosevelt Roads NAS... They parked side by side and the size difference was beyond words Don't get me started with how the C5 sounded, wow...

Can you do the F4U Corsair

I used to live in Maybrook New York in the late 80's, right at the edge of the buffer zone and in line with the main runway for Stewart Air Force Base. When the C-5's , based at Stewart, would come in from the west they had to clear a mountain range and then drop like a stone to get to the base only about six miles downrange. My entire house would shake. I was sometimes certain they were going to land on my roof.

Thank god 9/11 didn’t happen with one of these bad boys

I used to do maintenance on these things, and the scale in your head, it’s bigger. It’s a massive flying cave, with a cockpit and crew compartments in the front (including beds and a tiny seating area) plus a jetliners amount of seats in the back on top.

One thing I’ll never forget is on the C5-A if you didn’t follow the aft bay door opening procedures exactly, the door would fall off its hinges.

Most absurd plane in the United States Air Force says Simon. Why is it absurd there Simon. If it were a British airplane i doubt you would call it absurd but since it's one of ours you let your lack of impartiality when doing these videos show again. Is it incredible expensive, hell yes. Has it had it share of problems that had to be corrected that cost a lot of money, hell yes. Did it however do it's job when we had need of it and i might add do it's job when our allies including Great Britian when they asked for our help, hell yes it did so maybe you should get your snobby nose out of the air a bit there Simon and let us worry about how much the plane costs since we're not spending a dime of your money on it. With the state of Britian's economy being just as crappy if not worse than ours is right now i'd think even when you did this video you'd not be worried about how much a plane is costing us here in the US. It is still to this day a good aircraft that does the job that it was designed to do and as long as it does that it is not absurd at all but rather an aircraft that our military deems necessary and therefore none of your concern my good man lol. How about you do videos without the obvious lack of impartiality when it comes to US equipment as well as equipment from other countries as well. Every country spends money on military aircraft and such that ends up being way more expensive than it should be and has flaws that have to be fixed over long periods of time driving the cost up even more. And i believe if you look in your own back yard you'll find quite a few of these in your own military history. Otherwise maybe you and Jeremy Clarkson can get a room and share more ways of trying to talk crap about everything American and how everything that comes out of Britian is the best there has ever been.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Thanks for this. My dad was one of the first C-5 pilots. Initially stationed in Charleston, SC we moved to Altus, OK in 1972.

Who calls it Fat Albert? Do they have no respect for the Blue Angels?

As an aviation enthusiast, I have to say that the General Electric TF39 is one of the unsung heroes of aviation history. It was the first high-bypass engine to see active service, meaning that its frontal main fan was made purposefully larger relative to the engine core when compared to existing engines of the time. The extra air that was sucked in by the larger fan was not mixed with fuel and ignited, but rather bypassed around the combustion chamber although it had indeed been accelerated by the main fan. This extra current of air provided extra thrust without proportionally increasing fuel consumption (for clarification, I recommend checking animations and diagrams of high-bypass engines). In the case of the TF39, its bypass ratio is 8:1, meaning that 8 times more air is actually sucked and bypassed rather than mixed with fuel and ignited. Fuel consumption could therefore be reduced for a similar power output or alternatively thrust could be maximized for a similar fuel consumption. Without the advent of high-bypass engines, aircraft could've never have grown in size without hugely increasing in fuel consumption and affordable air travel as we know it would've never existed.

In the early 1980's, I was stationed at Pope AFB, NC. When ever I heard a C-5 was going to land, I would get my friends together and we would go to a park at the end of the runway.Watching a C-5 land is an amazing experience. The plane even with the landing gear extended, looked like the plane was coming in for a belly landing. Yet the C-5 would make a graceful landing. It made me wonder who designed a plane that large and yet it could fly.

Fat Albert is a Marine Corps C-130, not a C-5

No "linda lovelace"? Aaww

HEY!!!!!!!!
Finally!
A halfway worthwhile suggestion!
How does this sound? :
How about an edition on the history and development of three-dimensional gaming and simulations?

here after walking through one at an air show today!

I remember when, seeing the success of the AC-130's, there were attempts to convince the DOD to buy more C-5's so as to cut side doors in them and mount a bunch of cannons and guns, like SUPER versions. As I recall, they determined that those maneuvers while under those stresses were too unsafe for the airframe, without too much reinforcement. Had it gone through it'd have been a sight to behold...

Starfishes

I LOVE the C5. Have never had the priveledge of seeing or being in one, but i love this big fat*ss (as the time I went to Dayton NAFM there sadly wasn't one there) (yes i asked one of the workers and she said "We're waiting for it" so HOPEFULLY I'll get to see this Big Ass Boi soon)