Engineering News

The civilian version of the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules military airlift aircraft is attracting attention from air freight operators in Africa. They are interested in replacing the previous-generation L-100 civil Hercules version as well as other aircraft. The company produced 115 L-100 aircraft from 1964 onwards and some 70 of these are still in service around the world. The original L-100 was a version of the C-130E, but the fuselage was stretched to produce the L-10020 in 1968 and stretched again to produce the L-100-30 in 1970 to improve freight capacity and operating economics. Most civil Hercules are L-100-30s. Ironically, perhaps, some air forces bought L-100s despite these being civil aircraft.

The civil version of the C-130J is the LM-100J. “There is wide interest across Africa,” reports Lockheed Martin VP: Business Development Initiatives Europe, Middle East and Africa Dennys Plessas. “Current African operators of L-100s are expressing interest in the LM-100J.”

The previous-generation L-100 was flown by a number of African operators and some of these are still flying it. Those still flying the aircraft are reportedly Angola Air Charter, Libyan Air Cargo (although the operational status of this carrier is uncertain at the moment owing to the political instability in that country), Safair and Transafrik. In addition, the L-100 is operated by the Algerian and Gabonese air forces (the status of Libyan Air Force L-100s is again unclear).

Of these, South African operator Safair is, and has always been, the largest single operator of the L-100, having acquired nine, and looks set to be the first operator of the LM-100J. Angolan company Transafrik is also a major operator of the L-100.

“The LM-100J is slightly cheaper than the C-130J, due to its lack of military equipment,” he notes. “But it has all the other advantages of the C-130J. These include 27% less specific fuel consumption while having 25% more thrust [from its Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 engines] than from the [Allison] T56 [engines of the L-100].” (Note that Rolls-Royce acquired Allison in 1995 and that, consequently, the engines for the C-130J/LM-100J come from the same plant as the T56 units that power the earlier versions of the aircraft.)

The LM-100J can also fly higher and faster than the L-100 while requiring fewer flight crew. The pilots also benefit from better situational awareness. The new-generation aircraft will provide better fleet availability while reducing operating costs.

Thanks to its ability to accommodate many different roll-on/roll-off configurations, the LM-100J can fulfil a wide variety of roles. Lockheed Martin states these include aerial delivery (for example, of emergency aid packages), aerial firefighting, aerial spraying, humanitarian relief, medical evacuation/air ambulance, mining logistics, oil and gas exploration, oversized cargo transport and even VIP transport, as well as standard air freight transport. The aircraft can also operate to and from austere airfields.

As previously noted, Safair is likely to be the launch operator of the LM-100J.
Irish-domiciled ASL Aviation Group is a minority shareholder in Safair (until November last year, it was the majority shareholder) and it signed a letter of intent with Lockheed Martin to acquire up to ten LM-100Js, at the Farnborough air show in the UK in July.

“As an L-100 operator, ASL Aviation Group knows the flexibility and reliability that only a Hercules can deliver,” said Lockheed Martin aeronautics executive VP Orlando Carvalho at the signing ceremony. “ASL’s LM-100Js will offer these same attributes and more, helping Safair crews transport literally anything, anywhere, at any time in a technologically advanced airlifter that goes farther and faster than its predecessors.”