Aviation History – June 30, 1968. On June 30, 1968, aeronautical news is marked by the very first flight of the C-5A Galaxy, an aircraft from the workshops of the American aircraft manufacturer Lockheed, which cost the modest sum of twenty million of dollars ! It is from the state of Georgia that the aircraft will take off, leaving Dobbins Air Force Base. The aircraft should thus succeed the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster in the US Air Force fleet.
Lockheed won the army’s tender against its competitor Boeing for this device and must present a perfect copy, the US Air Force not compromising with reliability. Unfortunately, this will not be the case: a hardware incident will come to tarnish the end of the test flight, nothing very serious in itself, but in the state, the device will have to be reviewed. After flying over Marietta, the C-5A Galaxy wide-body aircraft will encounter a problem on landing: one of its 28 wheels dropping…
The C-5A Galaxy is a device that can carry 363 soldiers or 120 tons of cargo, measuring 75 meters long and 67.88 meters wide. Four TF39-GE-1C, with a unit thrust of 191 kN, namely General Electric turbofan engines, providing its engine.
