Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday that it has inducted the third Air Force C-5 transport into its production line in Marietta, Ga., to receive new engines and reliability enhancements under the RERP program. “We are excited every time we induct an aircraft to become a Super Galaxy, because it is the sunrise of a new generation of strategic airlifters,” said Lorraine Martin, Lockheed’s C-5 vice president. This aircraft, a C-5B model, will be the sixth C-5 that will be converted to the new C-5M Super Galaxy configuration. The first three C-5s were modified while the RERP upgrades were still in development and the production line was being established. Overall, the Air Force plans to modify 52 C-5s (one C-5A, 49 C-5Bs, and two C-5Cs) to the new configuration.
More than 20 tankers lined the runway at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., on March 27, for an “elephant walk” and the base’s largest mass launch of aircraft ever. Sixteen KC-46s and five KC-135s participated in the flush, with aircraft and Airmen from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing and the 931st…