Lockheed C-130A Hercules

The C-130A turned the YC-130 prototype — first flown at Burbank on 23 August 1954 — into a production aircraft. The first production machine flew from Lockheed's Marietta, Georgia plant on 7 April 1955, and deliveries to the US Air Force began in December 1956. It was powered by four Allison T56-A-9 turboprops driving three-bladed propellers, and early aircraft still had the blunt nose of the prototypes.

The USAF ordered 219 A-models. Pylon-mounted tanks under the wings raised the fuel load to 40,000 lb, and twelve aircraft were fitted with skis and redesignated C-130D for supply flights to radar sites on the Greenland ice cap. Many later served as gunships, drone launchers (DC-130A) and, after retirement, as civilian firefighting tankers.

Australia became the first export customer when 12 C-130As arrived from late 1958. The type outlived its designers' expectations by decades: Honduras was reported still flying one A-model as late as October 2009.