Customer Reviews

Lockheed C130 Hercules

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is another airplane profile book, with a lot of pictures and little substance. Why is it that aviation writers have the idea that the people who buy their books can't read, but like to look at pictures? However, if you want a profile book, this is the one to have. It has the best information related to the various models of the airplane. But if you want to find out what C-130s have done, look somewhere else.

Sam McGowan
C-130/Vietnam Veteran, author "The Cave", a novel of the Vietnam War.

After picking up Mr Smith's latest work titled after an airplane that I spent most of my 20yrs in the military on or working with I was pretty excited. I saw pictures inside that I hadn't seen before and a format that I enjoyed.
Then, I started reading the captions under the pictures. Bare in mind I have read a mistake or two in books I liked and they did little to distract from the overall impression of what was published but I kept finding more and more mistakes I felt something was wrong. Please, perhaps Mr Smith was not aware these were mistakes and took face value what someone told him. An example of such a mistake is page 52, which we are told is an aircraft that crashed in 1969 in a paint scheme not used until the late 80's, early 90's. Page 57 is captioned as a JC-130B, when in fact it is a EC-130H.
Perhaps the facts outside the pictures are more acurate but I would invite other aviation enthusiasts to check more closely before purchasing this book.

This is a very interesting book about an exceptional airplane. So many books have been written about the C-130, both the military and commercial versions, that it's difficult to come up with a new way of doing it. Mr. Smith has done just that. He covers every single variant of the airplane and freely uses the msn (manufacturer's serial number) of particular Hercs; a feature missing from most other books about this airplane. Although there are quite a few errors in the background of some of the many different models and the companies operating the commercial models, a redeeming factor is the many, never before published photos. In a book of this magnitude, it's almost impossible to have it 100% correct. A must for any Herc enthusiast.

If you love airplanes, the millitary and especially the C-130s, this is a book you will love! It has many good pictures and lots of technical info. My husband was a flight engineer on the C-130, he loved that airplane and flying on it. He flew in all conditions in Viet Nam and was a "Typhoon Chaser" in the Pacific. There just isn't anything this airplane can't accomplish.

"Lockheed C130 Hercules" is the perfect gift for any pilot who flys (or did fly) this multi functional and amazing aircraft. Book includes numerous pictures including the Air Force, Coast Guard & National Guard deployments & uses of the C130.