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| Lockheed Martin officials submitted a Program Notification Letter to the Federal Aviation Administration on 21 January 2014 for a type design update for the Model L-382J transport, a civil-certified variant of the C-130J Super Hercules. This commercial variant will be marketed as the LM-100J. A total of 115 L-100s, the commercial variant of the first-generation C-130, were produced from 1964-1992 at the then Lockheed-Georgia Company facility in Marietta, Georgia. Many of those airlifters are still in service worldwide. The LM-100J will be able to operate from short, unprepared airfields without dedicated ground support equipment. Other potential missions include aerial spray, firefighting, and delivery, medevac, humanitarian aid, and VIP transport. First flight of the LM-100J is expected in the 2017 timeframe. |
Monday, February 03, 2014
LM-100J set to launch.
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There is a history to this. This is how the C-130J was originally marketed in the 1990s. Make a "civilian version" so that LM can then go to friends in Congress and say: "Look, its' 'COTS' (commercial off the shelf). And thus an easy COTS purchase. The reality was different. There were some years of J-model fixes yet to do once the military got some of these pushed on them by Congress. Powerplant issues (it is a different motor) that FOD'd out where the classic C-130 had no problems. That, software and some workmanship issue. One of the funnies was the USAF weather wing. Several pushed on the Wing and you basically had two different flight lines as the logistics compared to the classic was so different. And they had not figured out MOST of the weather specific mission sets. They were delivered to the Wing non-functional for the mission. Although on one visit to the wing I did see a C-130J used. ....for a 'fini' flight of a retiring Colonel. Also as it was COTS, and a commercial logistics model. Surprise, much of the support was LM proprietary info. USAF had no way to audit what it was paying for in support. Years later this corruption was fixed. But it was a hell of a time.
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