A multi-role military transport. The Hercules holds a place of honor in the annals of Israeli military aviation, having played a part in the rescue at Entebbe and Operation 'Shlomo' - in which Ethiopia's Jews were brought to Israel.

The plane has been manufactured in over 100 different models, from August 1954 to the present day, serving varying purposes. In 1992, Lockheed delivered its 2,500th Hercules, thus making the Hercules the biggest seller in the history of transport planes, after the Dakota.

Its different roles include midair refueling of planes and helicopters, evacuation, airdrop of personnel and materiel, observation, airborne command and control, intelligence, fire fighting, satellite location, weather observation and research. The Hercules' many roles are largely a result of its good performance, and its ability to carry a relatively large payload while operating from short airstrips.

Development of the C-130 Hercules transport began a short time after the outbreak of crisis in Korea. The USAF concluded that it needed an advanced transport that would take large numbers of troops and vehicles to the front, and use short, unreadied runways for takeoff and landing.

Over the years, Lockheed-Martin developed a wide range of Hercules models, all of which have the same basic configuration, but differ in relatively small details.

Operational capabilities

The Hercules C-130H, which serves in Heyl Ha'avir, is equipped with four turboprop Allison T56 engines, which produce more than 4,000 hp. The engines are mounted into the Hercules’ straight wings, which come out of the top part of the fuselage. This design frees a lot of room in the plane's cargo bay, and enables the C-130 to carry large cargos, like APCs and trucks, as well as lighter vehicles. A special ramp at the rear of the Hercules facilitates quick offloading.

The Hercules can carry payloads weighing up to 23 tons. The cargo bay has room for 91 warriors, and additional equipment. In an emergency evacuation, the Hercules can carry up to 74 stretchers, which are arranged in 3 rows, one above the other, along the plane’s length. These multi-role capabilities have made it the IAF's leading transport.

The C-130 excels at landing on sandy surfaces, and rocket-assisted takeoff from short runways. This kind of takeoff utilizes rockets that are mounted on both sides of the plane's fuselage, and which give it additional thrust at takeoff - comparable to that of an additional engine. The co-pilot controls the rockets' operation with a switch located in the cockpit. The rockets are activated at the beginning of the takeoff run, if the runway is a very short one, or a few seconds before takeoff, in order to overcome an obstacle at the runway's end. In an emergency, or if one of the plane’s engines is disabled, the pilots may choose to activate the rockets at takeoff even on a full length runway.

For long range missions, or ones that require aircraft to remain airborne for long stretches of time, the IAF employs the Hercules KC-130H for midair refueling of planes and helicopters. The refueling is carried out with a controlled hydraulic system. In its refueling configuration, the Hercules carries a large 24,000 lb. fuel tank in the cargo bay, from which the fuel flows to two smaller tanks on either side of the plane. An 81 ft. long refueling hose extends from these tanks, with a basket-shaped structure at its tip, made of metal strips (the strips stabilize the basket in the air and prevent it from rotating). The basket connects to a fueling pipe which protrudes from the nose of the plane being refueled.

In certain situations, the Hercules can function as a 'flying gas station', i.e. a relatively fixed point in the sky, to which all planes are directed for refueling on their way to a mission. The Hercules can refuel two planes simultaneously. In the IAF, the Hercules is used for refueling Phantom and Skyhawk fighters, as well as Yas'ur Helicopters.

The Hercs arrive

The first pair of Hercules transports arrived in Israel in October of 1971. The IAF had shown interest in the Hercules back in the early 1960's, when the need for heavier and longer range transports than the IAF's Stratocruisers, Dakotas and Nords was recognized. However, purchase of the plane proved impossible at the time because of budgetary restraints, as well as the American administration's policy of not providing Israel with military equipment.

In the late 1960's the US's policy changed. It became possible to purchase military planes, and it was thus that the first Hercules transports made it into Heyl Ha'avir. The planes received the Hebrew nickname 'Karnaf' - 'rhinocerus'.

The Yom Kippur War

On October 14th 1973, when fighting between Israel, Syria and Egypt was at its fiercest, 12 additional Hercules planes landed at Ben Gurion Airport, as part of the American airlift. "There was an urgent need for additional Hercules planes", recalled Brig. Gen. (res.) Yehoshu'a 'Shiki' Shani, then deputy commander of the Stratocruiser squadron. "The Hercules can land almost anywhere, with a relatively large payload, and offloading supplies from it is easy and fast. At that time, the two Hercules transports we had received in 1971 had already proven their abilities, and it was important for us to get additional planes".

Gen. Benny Peled, who was the IAF's commander, decided to comply with the squadron's request and try to obtain additional Hercules planes as part of the American war aid. A week later, the eagerly awaited Hercules C-130Es landed at Ben Gurion. Immediately upon their arrival, the first Hercules squadron was established, taking the existing two Hercules planes into its ranks as well.

The new squadron now had a serious problem: who would fly the planes? No one had expected that the IAF would have such a large number of Hercules planes so soon, and only a handful of pilots had been trained to fly them. A quick retraining course was carried out before the new squadron took to the skies.

During the war, the Hercules planes still flew in the original American camouflage colors, and accumulated about 180 flight hours. The planes took part in the airlift to Faid Airbase in Egypt, and were also part of 'Rakevet Ha'hofesh' ('The Freedom Train') - the airlift which evacuated Israel's soldiers from the salient they had taken on the west bank of the Suez Canal.

After the war, the IAF ordered additional C-130H planes. These were delivered between May of 1974 and November of 1976, and included several KC-130H midair refueling models.

In the years following the war, the planes that had served in Yom Kippur underwent thorough renovation. The engines - which had proven weak and unreliable - were replaced. The avionics were improved and the wing beams replaced with new ones. The cockpit was also improved, and all of the planes were upgraded to the more advanced H model.

Entebbe

In 1976, Hercules Squadron 'Hatzipor Hatzehuba' ('The Yellow Bird') carried out one of the most complex missions ever undertaken by the IDF and IAF - the Entebbe rescue, code named Operation Thunderbolt and later named Operation Yonatan, in memory of its commander, Yonatan Netanyahu, who was killed in the raid.

On June 27th, an Air France passenger jet on a flight that had originated from Tel Aviv, stopped over in Athens and was headed towards Paris, was hijacked. The four hijackers diverted the plane to Entebbe, Uganda, and demanded the release of 53 Palestinians who were being held in Israeli jails. The Hercules transports took the Sayeret Matkal elite commandos to Entebbe on July 3rd, and brought them back the next morning, together with the liberated hostages.

Operation 'Peace for the Galilee'

In early 1976, 'Hapilim' ('The Elephants') Squadron - which was composed of Nords at the time - took in some Hercules planes. When the Nord was phased out of service, the squadron changed drastically and became a Hercules squadron. In the war in Lebanon, which began in June of 1982, 'Hapilim' Squadron participated, together with its sister Hercules squadron, in transporting men and materiel as well as in air-to-air refueling.

As the Israeli forces advanced into Lebanon, the IDF took Ansar airstrip near Beirut. The airstrip was originally a wide road that served the terrorists as a landing spot for gliders. It now became a landing strip for the IAF's Hercules squadrons. The Hercules transports were also used for taking soldiers on leave home to Israel (the land route to Israel was a hazardous one). Beirut's airport was initially used for this, then Damur's airfield.

Operation 'Shlomo'

Deteriorating conditions in Ethiopia led to a decision, in June 1991, to use the IAF to bring Ethiopia's Jewish community to Israel. 24 IAF Hercules and Boeing 707 transports, in addition to nine El Al Boeings and one Ethiopian plane, took off one after the other, in an airlift that brought over 14,000 'olim' (immigrants) to Israel.

Rwanda

In July of 1994, Hercules transports opened operation 'Nitzaney Tikva' ('Buds of Hope') for providing humanitarian and medical aid to the Rwandese refugees who survived the genocide. Packing 100 tons of supplies and equipment, as well as a mobile field hospital and a medical team, the Hercules planes covered close to 10,000 km. in 24 hours, before reaching the airfield at Goma, on the Rwanda-Zaire border. Additional flights were carried out by the Hercules and Boeings every few days, carrying medical crews, equipment and supplies.