[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

I flew to Vietnam on a C-141A Starlifter on April 1, 1969. We had 3 trucks and our ground surveillance radar on board. Not much room left. Or range. We had to stop in Alaska and Japan to refuel before landing at Ben Hoa AFB. Quite an airplane. Got sit in the flight deck a bit during the trip. That was the smoking section.

Heh. Otherwise known as the "Life-Sucking Tube of Pain".

My dad has a whole bunch of hours in both the -A and -B models.

Once they stretched them into the -B, they were painted green camo and its nickname became "The Starlizard".

Trivia: The original 141-A could outclimb an F-4 through 10,000'.

Think about that for a second.

When they stretched it in the early '80's by adding a 13' plug in front of the wing and a 10' plug aft of the wing, they didn't have to re-rate the motors at all-- the -A was *that* overpowered.

One of the coolest things I've ever seen was a four-ship of 141-A's in diamond formation doing a high-speed low-level flyby during an airshow in the late '70's when I was a kid. That was pretty damn epic!

R.