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 The US Air Force has given the CC-130J high marks for austere field takeoff and landing operations. The trials, held last November at Yuma, Arizona, were the latest in a series of CC-130J developmental military utility tests before US Air Force-led operational testing and evaluation begins in 2003. The CC-130J trials included the first dirt landing by a US Air Force crew. The shorter-length C-130J completed the austere field trials in 1999. The Yuma trials were conducted at Tyson Airfield, a dirt landing strip at the military’s Yuma Proving Grounds. The strip was selected for its environmental representation of possible war zone landing conditions. The crew landed the aircraft, which weighed in at 135,000 pounds, in less than 2,000 feet. |
