The Future of Outsized Cargo Airlift

[madhon]

They do actually fly Polish made aircraft, not less than with their elite and prestigious special and air forces.

Project:

Presently used:

PZL Mielec M28 Skytruck / Bryza Aircraft

The PZL Mielec M28 Skytruck / Bryza is a light turboprop short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft manufactured by PZL…

www.naval-technology.com

US SOCOM buys Polish “Skytrucks”

from Strategypage.com U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) has bought ten M-28 Skytruck aircraft from Polish manufacturer PZL. SOCOM needed a smaller transport, that could land on rough fields, …

strikehold.wordpress.com

Not anymore, the last 4 where retired from service December 2022

 

[TomcatViP]

Ouch.. Wasn't aware. What did they get to replace them?

 

[TomS]

Ouch.. Wasn't aware. What did they get to replace them?

C-146 Wolfhound (aka Dornier 328).

 

[Forest Green]

Energy-saving airlift prototype to be built by JetZero for Air Force

JetZero and Northrop Grumman will ready a full-scale prototype for its first flight in 2027.

www.defensenews.com

 

[Scott Kenny]

Is there a chance that at some point down the line the USAF might commision a new design to replace the C-5 ? But I wonder how big of a priority that would be for them with the sixth generation fighter in the pipeline.

Low, there's many C-5s in the Boneyard that can be brought up to C-5M standard when the current flying examples run out of hours.

Plus, between the NGAD and F-35, the USAF needs a crapton of money for fighters. It's a lot easier to get Congress to pay for a plane that fights directly, less so to get them to pay for a plane that moves beans bullets and bodies.

Which raises the question of how much specialized ground support equipment will be needed (e.g. GPS guided vehicles to open and close the tail cone on Boeing Dream Lifter).
Do you want a vehicle that can simply lay the odd-sized cargo n any concrete ramp? .... or something that is thousands of pounds/kilograms lighter, but needs its weight in specialized ground support equipment?

At the exotic end of the scale, I can envision an overly-specialized cargo plane flying 3 missions to deliver a single exotic piece of cargo. Flight number one delivers specialized ground support equipment. Flight number 2 delivers the cargo and flight number 3 moves the specialized ground support equipment to the next destination. Holy "extra flight hours Batman!"

OTOH, the ideal military transport lands, and opens the rear ramp. It drops an anchor and slowly taxies away from the anchor, which pulls the cargo out the back end. The transport then (hydraulically) closes its rear doors and flies away.

That's honestly a really good question.

Obviously the Dreamlifter and Beluga XL are only flying between two specific points to load and unload, so needing special GSE is not an issue.

The question is probably answered by just how many times the regular Belugas and An124s end up dropping cargo at some random airport versus a specified airport with special GSE for whatever they're hauling.