Located on the grounds of the Museum of Aviation near Robins Air Force Base in Georgia is one of the YMC-130H Credible Sport testbeds. Credible Sport was, to put it mildly, one of the sportier variants of the C-130. Intended specifically for a rescue mission of the American hostages held by the Iranians, Credible Sport was designed for near VTOL operations, to land and take off within the confines of a soccer stadium. In order to do this, the aircraft was liberally festooned with solid rocket motors. Eight were located near the front of the plane, with their nozzles pointing forward; at the instant the plane touched down, they would fire and slam the plane to a halt. Eight more pointed down, and more pointed aft; at takeoff, the downward rockets would provide enough thrust to launch the plane vertically skyward, while the aft rockets would push it forward. By the time they burned out, the plane would be going fast enough so that the conventional turboprops would be able to maintain forward flight.
[youtube fSFjhWw4DNo]
The program came to a halt when one of the test planes crashed… the braking rockets were meant to be fired after touchdown, not when the plane was still 20 feet in the air. Ooops.
The specifics of the mission as a whole are a bit murky. At least two Credible Sports would be used to deliver Delta Force commandos and to haul out the hostages; but there would also be considerable backup by other aircraft from the US Navy and Air Force. I had a friend who was in the Air Force at the time (“The Jimmy Carter Peacetime Fly-In Club” as he called it), maintaining B-52’s on Guam. And the night of the Eagle’s Talon/Desert One fiasco, the follow-up operation that followed in the aftermath of the failure of the Credible Sport, all the B-52’s were put on high alert and fully loaded with ordnance. Seems likely that the idea was to extract the hostages and then transform Tehran – and likely large parts of the rest of Iran – into fields of rubble reminiscent of WWII Hamburg. Had this gone off as planned, Reagan might not have been elected until 1984.
More photos after the “continue reading…”
2 Responses to “Credible Sport”
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I think you’re slightly off with the rocket configuration. There’s 8 motors firing straight down that cushion the landing which then lead to the forward rockets firing for the stop. Then there are a group angled downward to help with the takeoff.
Oh and there is an arresting hook included because after the takeoff the C-130 would land on an aircraft carrier with the released hostages and Delta team.
Great video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKCl3lfAx1Q&feature=related