The Lockheed Hercules retires from RAF service on 30 June 2023 concluding over 56 years of service to the nation.
As this selection of images from the Air Historical Branch show tactical airlift has been, and remains, at the heart of UK Defence operations across the globe.
The Hercules replaced the Handley Page Hastings and Blackburn Beverley in the medium-range tactical airlift role. The first Hercules C Mk 1 delivered to the RAF, XV177, is pictured at Marshall of Cambridge after its delivery flight from Lockheed's factory in Marietta, Georgia, on 19 December 1966. After painting and fitting out, the aircraft was then used for trials work at the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down.
The first RAF unit to receive the Hercules was 242 Operational Conversion Unit based at Thorney Island, Hampshire. The first aircraft to be received was XV179 at the end of April 1967; this photograph was taken a few weeks later on 5 June.
The Hercules equipped four UK based squadrons (24 and 36 Sqns at Lyneham, 30 and 47 Sqns at RAF Fairford) and overseas (48 Sqn at Changi, Singapore and LXX Sqn at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus).
The utility of the Hercules squadrons saw them involved in numerous humanitarian relief operations across the globe. This included in early 1973, Hercules' from the Lyneham Wing involved in the RAF's largest airlift since Berlin when some 2,000 tons of grain, rice and maize were air dropped to remote villages in Nepal during Operation Khana Cascade.
A defence review in 1975 saw two squadrons withdrawn, and in 1978 it was announced that 30 aircraft would be lengthened by 15 feet to enhance load carrying capacity (designated C Mk 3), the work undertaken by Marshall’s of Cambridge Ltd.
In 1982, a number of Hercules C.1s were converted to single-point tankers to support the Falklands airbridge from Ascension Island and air defence operations from Mount Pleasant airfield. One of the first aircraft, XV201, is seen refuelling a Nimrod MR2P during a trials flight from Boscombe Down.
The Hercules sported a number of different camouflage schemes during its RAF service, perhaps most short lived being this desert scheme from Operation Granby in 1991.
An order was placed in 1994 for 10 standard C-130J (C Mk 5) and 15 longer C-130J-30 Hercules (C Mk 4), the first arriving at RAF Lyneham in 1998. The last of the original Mk 1 aircraft retired in October 2013 prior to which the fleet had moved to RAF Brize Norton.
Enduring commitments in the Middle East and Afghanistan saw RAF air mobility squadrons central to UK and coalition operations, the last Hercules returning to the UK from Operation Shader at RAF Akrotiri in June 2023.
During its service a number of Hercules were lost in accidents or due to enemy action. As the aircraft retires, we remember all those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.
