5
Aircraft
Nominal Cruise 463L Pallets
Cargo Bay (w x h)
Passenger/Jumpers
C-17
0.70 – 0.77
18
18 feet x 14 feet
102/102
A400M
0.68 – 0.70
9
13 feet x 12 ft 7 in
116
C-130H
0.43 – 0.50
6
10 feet x 9 feet
92/64
C-160
10 feet x 9 feet
92/61
C-27J
0.35 – 0.50
2
8 ft x 7 ft 4.5 in
68/46
While the C-130 is capable of carrying 42,000 lbs of cargo, at cargo weights above 36,500 lbs,
the aircraft must land with additional fuel in the wings for wing bending relief. At the maximum
cargo weight of 42,000 lbs, the required ballast fuel is 16,000 lbs. This additional fuel must be
considered unusable until the cargo is unloaded, and results in the flat portion in the upper right
hand corner of the C-130’s range payload graph. The C-130J, currently in production, has this
same limitation.
The C-130 is limited to maximum landing weight for assault landings of 130,000 lbs. In a
tactical situation where fuel must be tankered, the allowable cargo rapidly decreases from the
42,000 lbs. maximum.
Because the original fleet of C-130A and B model aircraft were worn out by the end of the
Vietnam war, the advanced medium short takeoff and landing (AMST) program was launched as
replacement for the C-130. David Packard, of Hewlett and Packard, the Secretary of Defense
when the AMST program was launched, believed in competitive prototyping (“Fly-before-you
buy”); contracts were awarded to Boeing and Douglas for two prototypes, the YC-14 and YC-15.
These design goals of the AMST aircraft included improvements on C-130: a 2,600 NM
unrefueled range with a 19-ton payload, a long-range cruising speed of at least 0.75 Mach, and
the ability to operate with a 28,000 pound load from a 2,000-foot-long by 60-foot wide runway
during the mid-point of the mission. Both prototypes included a cargo compartment wide enough
