New Props Improve Antarctic Hercules

New Props Improve Antarctic Hercules

(NSI News Source Info) September 28, 2008: The New York Air National Guard has begun operating a ski-equipped Lockheed Martin LC-130H Hercules with new Hamilton Sundstrand NP2000 propellers, the first of 12 to be retrofitted to improve support for remote deep-field camps in Antarctica. Flight tests of the eight-blade composite propellers on the C-130 were conducted earlier this year at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on a Wyoming ANG aircraft, demonstrating increased performance and reliability, and reduced noise, vibration and fuel consumption, the company says. The composite-blade-outfitted NP2000s, already used on the U.S. Navy's carrier-based Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes, replace the original four-bades metal units and increase thrust, thus improving takeoff performance. Hamilton Sundstrand helped fund flight tests, but the Defense Department is paying for the retrofits. The retrofitted LC-130 is scheduled in November to fly its first mission to Antarctica, where the new propellers are expected to reduce the need to use JATO rockets for takeoff from ice- and snow-covered runways at deep-field sites.