Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules

The C-130J Super Hercules keeps the classic shape but replaces almost everything inside it. Four Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 turboprops of 4,637 shp drive six-bladed Dowty R391 composite propellers, and a digital glass cockpit cut the minimum crew to three — two pilots and a loadmaster — by doing away with the navigator and flight engineer. It first flew on 5 April 1996, and the Royal Air Force began taking deliveries in 1999 as the Hercules C4 (C-130J-30) and C5 (C-130J).

The stretched C-130J-30 adds 4.6 m (15 ft) to the fuselage, raising capacity from 92 to 128 troops and payload from 42,000 to 44,000 lb. The J is also the basis of today's KC-130J tanker, HC-130J rescue aircraft, MC-130J Commando II and AC-130J gunship. By March 2022, 500 had been delivered to 26 operators in 22 countries, and it is the only Hercules still in production.

The fleet passed one million flight hours in 2013, and that August an Indian Air Force C-130J-30 made the highest landing of the type, at Daulat Beg Oldi in Ladakh, 5,064 m above sea level. Since 2020 the Blue Angels' "Fat Albert" has been a C-130J bought from the RAF.