Inside the cavernous , Lockheed Martin , plane production plant at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, staff Thursday celebrated roughly 70 years of journey for the C-130 military airlifter — built in , Marietta , as the , longest-running military plane production line in past.
Since the , first journey on , Aug. 23, 1954, of the large propeller plane then known as the Hercules, it has been used to drop bombs, detective on target and attack them with artillery, according to , Lockheed Martin. Additionally, it has been used in numerous international philanthropic efforts.
Its cargo hold is completely pressurized and can be reconfigured to take troops, people, products or stretchers. Its portability for a variety of missions contributes to its longevity.
Rod McLean,  , Lockheed , Martin’s vice president and general manager of the , Marietta , site, said the anniversary” just signifies how , Lockheed Martin , is one of the key cornerstones of , Cobb County , and the metro , Atlanta , region’s economy”.
In , Cobb County, there are daily flights overhead of C-130s used for training by air reserve crews at Dobbins, or for test flights of new C-130Js just built.
During an all-employee event Thursday for the anniversary,  , Lockheed Martin , also honored four employees who have worked there for at least 60 years.
C-130 history
The , birth of the C-130 , stretches back to the United States ‘ entry into the Korean War. The , U. S. Air Force , commissioned what was then , Lockheed Aircraft Corp.  , to build a military cargo transport that could airlift combat troops and deliver them to small airfields.
After successful prototypes were built in , Burbank, California,  , Lockheed , moved the C-130 program to its facility in , Marietta, then known as , Lockheed-Georgia Company.
Since then, more than 2, 700 C-130s have been , ordered or delivered , to more than 60 nations. The version , currently manufactured in , Marietta , is the C-130J Super Hercules.
C-130s , have been used for , airdrops, deliveries, medical transport or other passenger transport , during humanitarian crises, including in , New Orleans , after Hurricane Katrina and after the 2010 earthquake in , Haiti. In January, the , Georgia Air National Guard , received its first of eight C-130J-30 Super Hercules tactical airlifters, though the , Savannah-based 165th Airlift Wing has operated several other variants of the Hercules over the years.
C-130s have also been used to combat fires, and they are also being used by the Air Force Reserve Command’s Hurricane Hunters weather reconnaissance squadron, which flies into hurricanes ‘ eyes to measure wind speed and barometric pressure to improve accuracy of National Hurricane Center forecasts.
There have also been some tragedies. Among them, in 2018, a C-130 crashed , onto Ga. 21 , shortly after takeoff from , Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. Nine airmen in the , Puerto Rico National Guard , were killed.
The future for Hercules
What will be the C-130 production’s ultimate lifespan, it is not yet known. The volume of C-130Js built in , Marietta , has declined to about 20 a year from 34 back in 2012. The peak year for C-130 deliveries was early on in the production line, in 1957, when 140 were delivered in one year.
” I would have told you in 2010 that we would n’t be producing C-130Js in 2020″, said , Lockheed Martin , Aeronautics President , Greg Ulmer. ” We’re going to be producing C-130Js in 2035 and beyond”.
According to McLean, that forecast is based on a combination of firm orders for production into the 2030s and consumer expectations for more C-130s.
The , International Association of Machinists , union, which represents workers at the , Marietta , plant, said it has been “actively working on , Capitol Hill , to maintain the current productions levels” of the C-130J.  , The union and members of , Congress , in May pushed for funding for the C-130J program in the federal government’s fiscal year 2025 budget, and warned there could be negative consequences of a drop in production.
“IAM Local 709 members in , Marietta , have consistently produced superior aircraft”, said IAM Southern Territory , General , Vice President Craig Martin in a written statement. ” These jobs are crucial not only for this community but also for supporting jobs across , Georgia , and the nation. We are proud of the hard work of our members, and we look forward to renouncing them in the near future.
A timeline of the C-130
Aug. 23, 1954: First flight of YC-130 prototype at , Burbank, California
1955: The first production C-130 is flown at the , Lockheed-Georgia facility in , Marietta
1956: The C-130A, the first production model of the C-130, enters service
1957: A record 140 C-130s are delivered in a single year
1961:  , Lockheed , becomes an integrated assembly line and is a pilot plant in the South to then-President , John F. Kennedy’s equal opportunity policy
1994: C-130J Super Hercules production begins in , Marietta
1998: C-130J enters service
2012: Peak production of the C-130J with 34 aircraft produced in a single year
2015: The 2500th Hercules is delivered to , Moody Air Force Base , in , Valdosta
2024:  , Lockheed Martin , celebrates 70 years since the first flight of the C-130
___
© 2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Distributed by , Tribune Content Agency, LLC
