Breaking dawn: Travis aims for record books with overnight C-5M flight

Published April 2, 2015
By Nick DeCicco
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- While many in the Travis Air Force Base, California, community slept April 3, one of the base's C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft was scheduled to soar into the record books.

The C-5M, lead by a crew of eight Airmen pooled from the 60th Air Mobility Wing's 22nd Airlift Squadron and the 349th AMW's 312th AS, was scheduled to takeoff carrying nearly three-quarters of a million pounds -- the weight of roughly 84,000 one-gallon jugs of milk.

If the crew hit the marks for which it aims in altitude, speed and payload, it gave the C-5M more records than any other aircraft in the world.

The flight was scheduled after the Tailwind's April 2 production deadline, at approximately midnight April 3. For coverage of the results, check Travis' social media outlets.

MAKING A MARK
Among the records the flight hoped to establish for the C-5M were altitude in horizontal flight, altitude with payload, time to climb, time to climb with payload and the greatest payload to nearly 30,000 feet in elevation. On its way to 86 total world aviation benchmarks, the C-5M would surpass the the B-1B (83) and An-225 (73).

Although setting the records is distinct, aspects of the flight weren't so unusual, according to Tech. Sgt. Christopher Boots, 22nd AS C-5 flight engineer and member of the record-attempting crew.

"We do this same type of mission day in and day out," Boots said. "We lift heavier equipment out of places that we're going. This is a time for it to be public. I think the numbers make sense for people to understand and really see what this plane is capable of."

The records part of a new slate that did not previously exist for aircraft weighing between 660,000 and 880,000 pounds with a payload of approximately 265,000 pounds, according to Maj. Jon Flowers, 22nd Airlift Squadron chief of standardization and evaluation and pilot for the flight. The National Aeronautic Association and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale will confirm any broken records nationally and internationally, respectively. The flight is a local mission in which crews practice maneuvers they need to maintain proficiency ratings.

In the C-5 cargo bay is more than 265,000 pounds, composed of 33 pallets weighing between 4,000 to 10,000 pounds each, said Master Sgt. Matthew Thomas, 22nd AS section chief of loadmaster standardization and evaluation. Adding in the weight of the aircraft, fuel and the crew, a payload of approximately 725,000 pounds isn't unusual for this aircraft.

"It's typical of what we might be able to do in real-world situations," Thomas said.

What is unusual is the speed at which the aircraft planned to do it. The C-5M, modified during the past six years to give modern brushstrokes to a fleet of aircraft dating back so far that Richard Nixon was president, has thrust and power previous models of the aircraft did not.

Powering it was an experienced Travis crew. Almost every person on the crew flew the A, B, C and M models of the C-5, said Lt. Col. Matt Jones, 22nd AS squadron commander and mission commander.

WINGS OF HISTORY
The first C-5 landed in June 1970 at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina. During each successive decade, a new model was introduced, with the C-5B in the 1980s and the C-5C during the 1990s.

Since the turn of the millennium, 73 C-5A models were retired or are scheduled to do so. Meanwhile, conversion of other models into C-5M Super Galaxies began in 2009.

As Thomas noted, the C-5 has had its hand in the nation's efforts throughout that time period, from the Vietnam War to Desert Storm to Operation Iraqi Freedom, to humanitarian missions, including bringing relief after natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy or the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

"Any time there's a natural disaster, the C-5 is right there, taking humanitarian aid in," Thomas said.

April 3 was chosen for the flight as the date is on or in proximity of important anniversaries for Travis. The date marks the 73rd anniversary of the 22nd Troop Carrier Squadron, which changed brands throughout the years before becoming the 22nd AS.

Additionally, April 4 marks 40 years since the Operation Babylift crash. When airlifting orphans out of Vietnam in 1975, a C-5A Galaxy crashed on approach to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam, killing 138 people April 4, 1975. The date commemorates the loss as well as celebrates the history of the squadron, Jones said.

The record-establishing flight comes more than five years after Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, broke 41 records in a single night by climbing to 12,000 meters in under 28 minutes with a payload of approximately 178,000 pounds with the C-5M.

Adding the Dover records to the Travis ones puts the C-5M in a class of its own, Boots said.

"I think the new C-5M is what the Air Force wanted the C-5 to be," he said. "It's done its mission well over the years, but I think this is truly what they had in mind when they designed the C-5 for what we're doing today with it."

As for the crew, Thomas, who is scheduled to retire next year after more than two decades of service, said that while he's traveled to all 50 American states and set foot on all seven continents, this is one of the flights he thinks he will remember most.

"I'm feeling a little anxious," he said. "It's probably going to be one of the cherries on the top of my career. ... This will be one I'll remember for a long time."