The C133 was not a stretched Hercules. It was an entirely different aircraft built by Douglas

I grew up about 1 mile from Santa Monica airport. In the early to mid sixties I remember C-133's, a stretch version of the C-130, landing there frquently to pick up parts from Douglas Aircraft for the space missions going on at that time. Why is there no mention of that aircraft?

Antarctica...to an LC-130, it's just another runway. USN squadron VXE-6 operated there. I made eight deployments and consider those years some of the finest in my 20 year career.

Love 2 rent this plane for a group skydive jump exp.
& for a New gunship: Install a Laser system & add a Nose & Port/Stbd side Laser nodes & the AC130L can be a LASER gunship using Pure directed energy into targets.
Laser system must be portable & hooked into planes Laser firing ports & onto Nose cone turret for 180 arc firing fwd.
Wow.
But retain the past AC130 gunships as proven support planes.
Wicked, Laser gunship.

Between February 1972 and 1973 as an aircraft commander and IP I flew more than 100 AC-130E gunship missions over South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The 16th Special Operations Squadron was stationed at the RTAB in Ubon, Thailand and referred to as "The Four Engine Fighters Of Wolfpack", and our call signs were "Spectre" as we flew primarily at night. Our aircraft were armed with two 20mm vulcan cannons, one 40mm cannon, and a 105mm howitzer.

Instructor Flight Engineer and Stan/Eval. The normal Max. gross weight is 155,000 lbs. For special missions there is a waiver to 175,000 lbs.

I flew the Herc as a civilian for Alaska International Air both domestically and overseas. We had the -30's with Allison 501-22a's, just shy of 5000 horse power. A great airpland. We also had a MTOW of 155,000 lbs, but I think this was an FAA limitation. I believe the military flew at 175,000 lbs MTOW. Also had a max cieling of 32,600 ft.

Years of working on the Herc, The best times spent with The Strategic Air Command & the D.C. 130. Supporting the Viet-Nam operations, out of Utapao Thailand.This bird has so many missions and it does them well.

I have flown on this aircraft for the better bart of 14 years as a Flight Engineer and also as an instructor Engineer and it is the best aircraft the air force ever bought. It will be around for a long time to come. I accumulated over 15,000 hours on the herk and love every minute of it. The 50th TAS is still the best

Have about 2,000 hours in the C-130E and RAF Hercules C.MK.1 as Aircraft Commander and Instructor Pilot. With the RAF -15 engines cruised well above FL30. Great airplane. A real workhorse and fun to fly.

Roger that on the ceiling limit. I have been above 30,000 feet in a D-6. We did some high altitude drops for the Army at Yuma Test Center.

Ceiling calculation of 22650 ft is way off!

I only flew the Herc for 2 1/2 years (2100 hrs) but seem to recall our max gross as 155,000.