“Credible Sport”

Credible Sport was the code name given to a program to create a super-short takeoff and landing version of the C-130 Hercules. This was during the Iranian hostage crisis; the idea was that these planes would land in a soccer stadium across the road from where the hostages were being held. In order to pull this off, the planes needed to be able to land and take off again from within a very confined area. To make this possible Lockheed simply attached large solid rocket motors pointing down to provide lift at very low speed, forward to provide braking thrust after touchdown, and aft to provide a massive kick in the pants to boost the plane skyward again. Data and video of Credible Sport have been difficult to come by; fortunately, someone posted a very clear video to Youtube (and I really wish I coudl get embedded Youtube videos to work in this blog, but they refuse to): http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fSFjhWw4DNo

Here are some highlights of a Credible Sport prototype taking off:

Here it is coming in for a landing:

And here’s what happens when you fire those braking thrusters before you actually touch down:

Thus explaining why Credible Sport was never used.