OLDER CARGO PLANES ON JOB
STARLIFTER: TheAir Force's fleet of C-141s may be on its way out, but
the war effort keeps it aloft.
BY MARLOWE CHURCHILL
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE, October 15, 2001, B-Section, Page 1
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE—That growl of jet engines lifting 300,000 pounds
of plane and cargo off the runway day and night is as familiar to aviation
buffs as the whap-whap of a helicopter rotor.
The fleet of Vietnam War-vintage cargo planes stationed at March Air
Reserve Base once again is being called to do the heavy lifting,
this time in the war on terrorism.
"Just an awesome plane," said Shayne Meder, a retired Air Force
master sergeant who now restores aircraft at March Field Air Museum.
The C-141 Starlifter, with its distinctive 39-foot-high T-tail
and four Pratt and Whitney turbofan engines, is flying
near-daily cargo missions from March to support the
Defense Department wartime needs.
Exactly what the cargo planes are doing and where they
are going is classified.
The Air Force plans to retire the last of its 102 Starlifters
within five years, replacing them with the bigger C-17 Globemaster III.
March's 452nd Air Mobility Wing, which flies 18 Starlifters,
is hoping to get the new Globemasters as replacements for the
Starlifters. The Air Force will have 137 C-17s once the entire
fleet is delivered. That total cannot keep up the daily pace delivered
by the Starlifters, according to the Air Force and the airmen who fly the planes.
With 10.5 million flying hours logged over 37 years, the C-141s'
retirement date could be pushed back further because of the current
terrorist threats, some say.
However, there are no plans to change that scheduled retirement,
said Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. David Lamp. The Air
Force has requested more C-17s to fill the void left by the
Starlifters' eventual retirement, he said.
'Only plane I wanted to fly'
Veterans see extended life for the Starlifters.
"Personally," said Meder, "I don't think they'll retire then.
With what's going on now, the Air Force would be crazy.
We might need them."
THOMAS KELSEY / THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE Looking forward from the tail of the C-141 Starlifter shows the immense size of the jet. The tail is 39 feet from the ground, and the length of the plane is 169 feet.
The Starlifters' numbers dwindle as each surpasses 45,000 flying
hours, the outer limits of the airframe's life.
A typical trans-Pacific mission can run 12 or more hours, so the
C-141's life is equal to at least 3,750 of those trips. Put
another way, the average C-141's life is equal to 1,875 continuous
days (5 years and 50 days) in the air.
"You hate to see them leaving the inventory," said Lt. Col.
Kelly Curtis, a veteran Starlifter pilot and March reservist.
"A lot of us keep hoping the 141s get a lease on life."
The Starlifters' aviation history is long and rich.
President Kennedy pushed a button symbolically to roll out
the first of 284 in 1963 from Lockheed's plant in Georgia.
Those early Starlifters began flying the next year. Lockheed
then lengthened the fuselage on 270 Starlifters during a 1980
upgrade of the fleet, giving the plane more room to haul cargo
and troops. The fleet recently was modernized with the latest
digital instruments in the cockpit.
More than half the fleet is flown by Air Force Reserve and Air
National Guard units.
It's hard for airmen and maintenance people to say goodbye to
the Starlifter that has been one of the Air Force's most
reliable, safest and easiest to fly, said Air Force Lt.
Col. Gary Pennington, another March reservist.
Shayne Meder, aircraft restoration manager at March Field
Air Museum, sits in the pilot's seat of a C-141 Starlifter.
Pilots always have their favorite aircraft, he said.
"The Starlifter is the only plane I wanted to fly," said the
pilot, who has 10,000 flying hours in the C-141 during more
than 30 years.
Nonstop Starlifters
It was the type of missions the Starlifter performed
that enthralled Pennington and thousands of other pilots
and air crews. The six-member crews could expect to fly
virtually anywhere in the world.
And they did: Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Haiti, the Persian
Gulf, Somalia, Antarctica and countless humanitarian missions
to remote airfields were among the calls made by Star-lifter crews.
Missions ranged from flying 566 American ex-POWs from Hanoi to the
United States to flying 37,000 missions during the Gulf War. And
now, the Star-lifters are the critical lifeline for scientists in
Antarctica as they fly in supplies under the most severe weather conditions.
Pennington remembers a period when the Air Force designated a group
of Starlifters to be flown virtually non-stop to see what kinds of
break-downs maintenance people could expect.
The Air Force learned the plane could fly pretty much non-stop with
minimum engine failure, he said.
According to the Air Force, the plane's safety record is phenomenal
over 37 years: 16 destroyed by air crash or some other ground
accident; 161 crew and passengers killed. The last crash was in
1997 with nine killed. One Starlifter was destroyed on the ground
when hit by an F-16, leaving just 15 actually destroyed in air crashes.
The plane is a joy to fly, said Bob Dotson, a retired Air Force
colonel from Redlands.
"You can fly it with two fingers," said the former fighter pilot,
who flew 16 different military aircraft during his 30-year
career.
The engines are so powerful pilots jokingly gave it a fighter
designation, the "F-141."
Some Army paratroopers prefer jumping from the C-141 over other
aircraft, said Meter, the aircraft museum's expert. The plane
can hold 200 soldiers or 155 paratroopers. And it can carry 80,000
pounds of cargo. That's less than half the capacity of the new
C-17, which can carry one M-l tank. The Air Force now flies 75 of the new
Globemasters.
These days, the Starlifters' destination is classified as they
climb and bank northwest out of March's runway.
"The 141 is playing a significant, and much unheralded role,"
Dotson said. He once commanded the Air Force Reserve's 4,400-member
wing at the former Norton Air Force Base.
"To get our forces into position," Dotson said, "you always have
to have the 141s."
This article was submitted by Richard Reichelt, from his personal collection of
C-141 material
Last Updated: 14-Sep-2004 10:10