Old School Air Cargo

Once upon a time, back in the 1960's, my grandmother, my granddad and my father all worked for Lockheed Georgia Company in Marietta, Georgia.  In those days the premier products coming out of Lockheed Georgia were the C-130 and the C-141.  By 1970 that also included the mammoth C-5A.

The Vietnam War was raging and Lockheed couldn't produce enough airplanes.  The parking lot at what had been the "Bell Bomber Plant" in the 40's, and became "Air Force Plant No.6", was full. 

My father worked in international aircraft sales.  Amongst the derivative products of the C-130 was the L-100.  The L-100 was a civilian version of the venerable and well proven C-130 Hercules.  I loved it as a kid.  Simple reason.  Dad had a desk model of the L-100 in Delta colors.  Any airplane I could play with had to be cool.

Delta and Alaska Airlines operated the L-100 along with Southern Air, which had its connections to the CIA.  I wish I still had that desk model...

At the time the L-100 was introduced with Delta, the main customers were "Aerospace customers". Guess what?   The main customers that would have fit Delta's route structure then would have been Lockheed California Company and Lockheed Georgia. The CEO of both Lockheed companies was Dan Houghton.  My Grandmother happened to be his executive secretary.  (she was a bar certified lawyer to boot.)

What is ironic is that Delta abandoned specialized air cargo aircraft when they developed belly capacity in then new, wide body aircraft like the 747, L1011 and DC-10.  Delta abandoned the 747 in  1976 because it didn't fit their network.  The L-1011 was a workhorse and handled the majority of domestic air cargo.

Today, airlines are using regional jets and smaller commercial jets to service longer distances.  This has killed the domestic air cargo market because there is no excess belly space for freight.  Perhaps an aircraft like the L-100 would have found a niche today?

As for "Air Force Plant No. 6"... Lockheed produces a new product called the F-22.  Along side the C-130J!

clipped from blog.delta.com Forty-two years ago this month, on September 15, 1966, Delta launched the world’s first scheduled service of the all-cargo, turbo-prop Lockheed L-100 Hercules.  It was the commercial version of the military C-130 Hercules, famous its ability to land on unimproved short strips, yet carry bulky loads and vehicles. This photo of the rear of the boxy L-100 fuselage shows the loading system.  Cargo pallet transporters, pulled in a train by a tug, were wisked from the Delta freight facility to the Hercules.  The palletized freight was then moved over the roller bed surfaces of the transporters and the floor of the plane.  Here, you see a T-shape option for complex loading/unloading where the pallets are moving from side position onto the main line of loading.  According to Delta press releases from 1966, three men could unload and load a full Hercules–45,000 pounds–in less than 30 minutes. The Hercules was suited to Delta’s relatively short haul, small shipment operation in the 1960s.  With this plane, we offered the first single-carrier cargo service between California and the Southeast, filling a big gap between the aerospace industries in those regions. When our first widebody passenger jets–the Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-10–arrived with their speed and large underfloor “belly bin” capacity, we did not need a fleet of specialized cargo aircraft any longer.  Delta’s last L-100 flight operated thirty-five years ago this month, on September 1, 1973.

Add Freightdawg.com to your social bookmarks!

Comments

[boxes to the Philippines]

WOW! Amazing cargo air line specially the second photo. I really amaze because I do not believe such many box fit it.

Daniel Roberts