C-5A Rollout, First Flight, Delivery USAF 1968 Pres. Johnson

[DEVASTATOR478]

U.S.A. !!!

[louisefrainsanchez]

My dad was a tool and die maker on this first C5a...I remember the blast in the middle of the night I was 6, you don't forget this stuff. The story I have heard all of these years is that a certification for landing gear was not completing all of the cycles required due to hydraulic temps increasing so a shortcut was ill advised and placed chilling units on some safety valve to aid in cooling , the pressure built up killed the workers when the system blew. I miss the sound of jets screaming!

[michael70224]

I live were C-5s train sometimes they spend allday shooting TandGs what a site i really like the C-5 .

[piratesclemente]

I was stationed at Fort McPherson in 1968. I had heard about the first flight of this monster of a plane.

My most vivid memory of this flight was that the chase jet flying along side of the C5 looked as though it was traveling around 250 mpg, while the C5 looked like is was traveling so slow that it might fall from the sky.

The contrast between the C5 and the smaller chase plane was staggering.

I wish I could go back.

[kob3bryant8]

Beautiful video. I love the music.

[buffan34]

excellent video,thanks

[IdolHans]

World's first jumbo jet! I logged 6981.5 hours on the C-5 and was an instructor flight engineer in the 22nd Airlift Squadron. I just bought the book "C-5 History---Crushing Setbacks, Decisive Achievements". The prototype---68303---That was the aircraft that was destroyed on the ground at Dobbins when a technician hooked up a ground heater duct to a open fuel cell, then routed the ducting to the ground, hooked it up to the heater unit, lit the heater unit and blew the airplane up.

[doogie1136]

@IdolHans

I was working there when the ship blew up. Quite a scene. Mechanic was killed in the explosion...sad.

[IdolHans]

@doogie1136 I was just a young punk hippie living overseas when I saw the headline in the Stars and Stripes. That same headline repeated itself a few times---The C5 crash at Sherman Williams Oklahoma (wheel well fuselage fire), the 1975 crash in Vietnam, and later the crash of 68228 over at Ramstein Germany and the crash of a B model at Dover in 2005 (see youtube video on that one).

[JessimaeAlice]

Too bad that aircraft is a maintainers worst nightmare. I work on them now as a jet engine mechanic.....never in my life have i worked such a pain in the ass engine.

[IdolHans]

@JessimaeAlice God bless you and may God help you! Hopefully the whole fleet will get CF-6-80's to replace those pain in the ass TF39's! Don't worry----I changed a lot of cold section accessories, cowl doors, inlet rings, lots of bleed air, fuel and oil leaks.

[morSA42]

great vids . . . its funny how this footage is somehow more appealing to watch than some of the clips captured by more modern means, even if the quality or resolution is better . . . nice audio too!

[mcdonnell220]

OUTSTANDING & RARE stuff. :-)

[snooppupc130jrketmas]

hehe, imagine air force one " man, its all about the 'c-5a', I bet he couldnt carry the president!"

air force one is jealous!!

[philskelton1]

i remember this.

watching and watching..

this is amazing.

[khwooter]

My birthday is march 2nd its only 21 years older than me:)

[IdolHans]

Worlds's first jumo jet. I got to be an instructor flight enginer on it logging 6981.5 hours. I got my money's worth. Check out my Major Jill Metzger scandal video. The Air Force has gone to hell with political correctness running it and ruining it!

[rdanlord]

I lived and went to school less than three miles from the Lockheed/ Dobbins tarmac. The flight path of the Galaxy during it's test runs was right over my house. When it flew over, one could look straight up and into the cargo bay through the opening of the landing gear. The plane seemed to float like a blimp. I also was near Lockheed when a C-5 exploded during refueling in 1970. The blast lit the Marietta night sky. Proud to have had my late Aunt Lorene as a planner on the C-5 project. Awesome!!

[doogie1136]

I was there during the blowup of the C-5 at the B-25 flight area and the explosion (which was due to fumes in tanks ignited somehow. One technician was killed. I was there when the AF team came to investigate.

[rdanlord]

I was only 12 when that accident occurred. Our whole family was out in the yard for an hour looking toward Lockheed trying to figure out what happened.

[IdolHans]

Somehow hell. The guy attached a heater duct to an open fuel cell (tank), then lit off the heater on the ground after the fuel fumes traveled down the lenght of the hose. Kaaaabbooooom! .

[flightsimer747]

What a nice plane, oh and for those of you who think that the 747 is dying, your wrong id like you people to take a good look at the new 747-8

[snoopyloopy]

ahh yes, early turbofans at their finest. look at those trails lol.

[dimitri02]

did the ol A model still have the high pitched sound back when it was first flown?

[rdanlord]

Yes the C-5A had a very distinct pitch, even in 1968. I remember the first flights around Marietta. From my house, you could hear the start up, take off, flight circle around the city, then the landing and shut down. I remember neighbors emptying out of their houses to see it in it's initial flights. Many Marietta residents feared it would just fall out of the sky, observing it's near still appearance in flight.

[doogie1136]

I can see the possibilities but definitely my home movies. I had a great vantage point on the runway siding... There was a time when I was stationed there that the C-5A blew over a Volkswagon near the B-25 building run up area!

[itsausa1]

I was part of the USAF camera crew that filmed this first flight. I was standing behind the C5-A when it taxied for take-off. Had my Arriflex mounted on a tripod anchored into the soft ground off the tarmac. Almost lifted me and the camera off the ground. A feeling I'll never forget and a moment I can't forget. Odd, but some of this footage looks like mine. But there were so many cameramen there that day.

[wigtonjr]

WOW What a wonderfull video. My father was a production test pilot on the C-5. I have his flight crew pins. And many great memories. I will foward this on to a friend who's father was a pilot on the 1st flight. Thanks.

[longlakeshore]

747 still on ground? Well, yes, but C5A almost bankrupted Lockheed requiring a huge government bailout, and the wing had to be redesigned at further expense. Boeing&747 required neither. And long after the last C5 is melted down to make beer cans, Boeing will still be making 747. Still, I love to watch C5s fly into the boneyard. Can always tell when one's flying over just by the sound those GEs!

[clarkcommando]

longlakeshore:Sorry to tell you.You are very wrong.I flew both the 747 and C-5 and the 747 is already hitting the bone yard.The C-5 will be around another 40+ years after the C-5M modifications.Sorry to spoil your dream.

[longlakeshore]

You miss my point. C5M is a mod program to extend life of existing airframes. Lockheed hasn't delivered a new C5 since when? 1990? Meanwhile Boeing continues to deliver new 747s to a world hungry to haul freight and passengers, and will do so for decades to come..

[itagonet]

From Naples LIRN, and the whine of C5 was my "music" during elementary and middle schools... Just on the runway path...

[straightedger9]

The best video ever of my favorite plane of all time....thats the way they looked when i was a kid......alot of airshows:)

[Ceemor]

thanks for this impressive video.i grew up in frankfurt near the rhein-main-airbase in germany and every day i saw this amazing plane flew over my head.now, the airbase doesn´t exists anymore...i miss the incredible sound...

[FDISKMaster]

I was born on Travis A.F.B. California Sept 1971. I was born to the sounds of the C-5 and grew up watching it fly. My father was in the Air Force and worked on the C-5.

This is one impressive aircraft and a testament to American ingenuity only to be copied by others.

Thanks for sharing the video.

[jbrunsonjr]

Thanks for posting this video - my grandfather did a bunch of design work on this plane. It's cool to see what he spent a good portion of his life on as it was rolled out. Thanks for posting this!

[zombiega1]

ive lived a few miles from dobbins/lockheed my whole life,seen a lot of aircraft fly in and out of there. would have been cool to have been there for this!!! too bad i wasnt born till '74

[soohoojrj]

Awesome,....and great music also,....Thnx Doogie.

[paulleeks1966]

well done doogie1136

This is a COOL aircraft!!

I love aircraft as well

[MightyMaul]

awesome video! these planes are soooo huge it almost seems that they are buildings... until they takeoff.( is it just me or did the takeoff seem kina smokey?)

[doogie1136]

Thanks!. Yes but I think they worked on that issue over time. We had to clear traffic out of Dobbins when the C-5 took off- delays behind the plane were significant--somewhat unsure what the turbulence would be when the first flights took place, so everyone waited quite a bit of time for things to calm down. It did look like a building--this was before the Boeing 747 took flight.

[Randyincv]

Great video. In my Air Force Career I only flew on C-5's twice from McChord AFB Washington to Billund Denmark and back. We landed to refuel in Gander New Foundland and the ramp crews about crapped their pants. They had never seen a Galaxy land there before they were begging for a tour, we couldn't let them due to the cargo. They were MOST disappointed. Also saw an An-224 at my last base at Kingsley Field Oregon.

[sfarmer1962]

What a magnificent aircraft....

My grandfather helped build these things..he was at Lockheed from the mid 50's thru his retirement in the late 70's. I remember seeing these gray & white C5's fly over our house in the northeast Atlanta suburbs when we were kids. Spooky sight, it seemed like it barely had any airspeed at all....almost suspened in mid-air.

And the SOUND! Nothing else sounded like a C5! Bravo for posting this...brings back memories.

[doogie1136]

Thanks for the feedback. They were impressive. The assembly process in production was quite something to see these sections get assembled. 6 Greyhound buses can fit inside, and troops on the upper deck besides... Had to have a separate building all its own to place the tail on the C-5.

[idiot49]

I was going to say almost the same thing you said except I lived in Dahlonega, They did a lot of the test flights up here. I guess that was because not many people lived here incase of a crash and they figured us Mountain people knew how to run as in experience of running shine.

[thunderdragon14]

C-5 sometimes known as "hangar Queen"

[mikedailing]

Great Production.. and Superb Editing. All in all... AWESOME!

[2steppa]

Wow, amazing footage there! I remember seeing the C5 in the grey/white scheme flying in and out of Mildenhall, UK in the 70s and 80's then they changed to the camo scheme, then slate grey.

Those TF39 engines look smokey in that video, they must have refined them a bit over the years as they're no where near that smokey nowadays.

[TISAC1]

Also- by the time Johnson had left office, the new administration was in the process of forming the EPA, and with it went the days of smoky jets- New era when jets would fly cleaner! Note the dirty trails at TO for flights there :) Not today they don't!

[doogie1136]

For me, having arrived at the plant in 1967, the first seven aircraft had the paint scheme, and the military version over time looked odd to us! It was fascinating being a part of this tie period and watching the first flight, delivery, and on going production...

[rdanlord]

Yeah, I grew accustomed to the Grey and white paints scheme and figure all C-5's would be like that...then at an airshow in NAS Jacksonville, Fl, in 1996, I finally got an opportunity to tour a C-5...but it was painted in green and brown combat camouflage. That did strike me as odd, but it was great to finally tour the plane. It was like walking around in a warehouse.

[GMBregoli]

Great Video. Never seen a C-5 with that odd paint scheme. Its strange seeing a military plane painted glossy white and gray. Thanks for posting this rare video.

[seaverhp]

Flew in the C5 Galaxy many times in my Air Force career. A great aircraft. Always commanded attention when arriving at foreign bases. People would comment that they thought it would fall out of the sky while on approach to the airport.

[doogie1136]

If you think about the fact nothing that size had flown before, except for the low level flight of the Spruce Goose?- it was quite a show to see that take off. We kept thinking it was about to land, but of course, it was off in the distance and the size was throwing everything off. It blew over a Volkswagon parked too close at the B-25 flight line one time.