This collectible model represents the C-130T Hercules, Fat Albert, the support aircraft for the Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team. Flown by an all-Marine crew, the C-130 Fat Albert carries parts, support equipment and ground crew. Painstakingly built from Philippine mahogany by skilled craftsmen using a wealth of detail, this 1/100-scale model C-130T Hercules Fat Albert makes a great gift for any pilot, aviation enthusiast or history buff.

What the C-47 Skytrain was in the 1940s, the C-130 Hercules is the modern equivalent – a workhouse found in air forces around the world. The C-130 is not the heaviest lifter in the inventory, nor is it the fastest or highest flying. What it is, is tough, adaptable, efficient and reliable. The C-130 Hercules has been equipped with skis to land on Antarctic ice; with an array of guns and cannon as an attack aircraft; as a medevac ship; with advanced sensors as a special operations troop carrier; as an aerial tanker, and as a reliable cargo carrier able to operate of poor surfaces. The C-130 has also dropped one of the most powerful non-nuclear bombs in the U.S. inventory, the 15,000-pound BLU-82 “daisy cutter.”

The Korean War showed the shortcomings of the existing cargo aircraft of the time – the C-47s, the C-119 Flying Boxcar, the C-46 Commando. In 1951, the Air Force issue a request for proposals for a cargo aircraft that would have a capacity for 92 passengers, 72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers, a range of 1,300 miles, the ability from short or unimproved runways, and an ability to fly with one engine shut down.

Lockheed’s proposal won, and the first flight of the C-130 Hercules was on Aug, 23, 1954, with service deliveries beginning in 1956.

The C-130 is 97 feet long with an wingspan of 132 feet, powered by four Allison T56-A-15 turboprops of 4,600 horsepower. It has a range of over 2,600 miles at a cruising speed of 336 mph, and can carry a load of up to 45,000 pounds.

Countries around the world continue to fly the C-130 in active service, and the latest model, the C-130J Super Hercules features six-bladed composite scimitar props, digital avionics including heads-up displays, and Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 turboprops. More than 2,600 C-130s have been produced – so far.

While most of the attention at a Blue Angels performance is on the precision maneuver of the F/A-18 Hornets, Fat Albert put on a show of her own, showing short-field takeoff, and, until 2009, blasting off with the help of jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) rockets.

Semper Fi