The C-130 aircraft is a workhorse of air-forces around the world. In continuous production since the early 1950s, more than 2,400 aircraft have been built in over 70 variants. The C-130 military transport aircraft has proven its reliability, efficiency and its operational readiness in even the harshest of environments and combat theaters. This multi-role aircraft is in operation by more than 60 nations for missions including search and rescue, weather reconnaissance, maritime patrol, aeromedical evacuation, and aerial firefighting. This rugged aircraft is often the first aircraft “in,” touching down on austere landing zones before any other transport to provide humanitarian relief after natural disasters. The question is how has this aircraft stood the test of time?
The answer lies in the ability of the aircraft to transform itself. Retrofits, modifications and upgrades (RMUs) have helped to enable this transformation and indeed continue to offer operators the opportunity to enhance safety, improve efficiency, increase availability, improve maintainability and reduce lifecycle operating costs to extend the useful life of the C-130. For the C-130, Honeywell provides a range of safety and mission-critical on-board equipment for this important aircraft, including Auxiliary Power Units (APU) and generators, Radar, Radio Altimeters, Air Turbine Starter, Traffic Collision and Avoidance (TCAS) Systems, and Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems (EGPWS). Additionally, Honeywell’s industry-leading satellite communications systems are capable of adding consistent, reliable, high-bandwidth connectivity services to the aircraft, even in remote areas, providing a critical link from the aircraft to the rest of the battlespace and increasing situational awareness for the operator.
Honeywell provides a range of upgrades available for the C-130 that can increase the life of your aircraft:
- Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) – Improves situational awareness throughout high workload missions by protecting against Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT)
- Embedded GPS/INS Upgrade – Provides advanced performance navigation and enhanced velocity performance
- Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) – A sensor-based monitoring system that enables Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) by measuring the health and performance of mission-critical components in aircraft
- Weather Radar – Features long-range detection, ground mapping and advanced weather analysis capabilities to detect and re-route around storms
- Traffic Awareness – Provides a greater surveillance range than ETCAS, significantly reducing the risk of collision while meeting current industry mandates for access to civilian airspace
- Satellite Communications – A wide range of hardware, software and service solutions available depending on your mission requirements. See our military satellite communications page for more information
- Main Engine Generator Shaft Disconnect – Functions as a ‘mechanical fuse’ that severs the shaft of faulty generators
- Main Engine Generator Shaft Upgrade Kit – Operators currently flying the older configuration Generator Shaft Disconnect can install the upgrade kit, which contains a new shaft and circular polyimide spline adapter
- Air Turbine Starter & Control Valve – High reliability, drop-in solution that provides more than 4,500 hours Mean Time Between Unscheduled Removals (MTBUR)
- Cooling Turbine – Environmental Control System (ECS) components upgrade provides a 2 times increase in cooling turbine reliability
- Anti-Ice Valve – Addresses safety concerns of incumbent valve’s flow body separation occurrences
- Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) – Increases airflow for better ECS performance, expands generator capability from 20 to 40 KVA and uses longer-life materials for a 4 times improvement in reliability.
Honeywell C-130 Upgrades
1986 marked a new direction for Honeywell, beginning with the acquisition of Sperry Aerospace. In 1990, Honeywell spun off their Defense and Marine Systems business into Alliant Techsystems, as well as their Test Instruments division and Signal Analysis Center to streamline the company’s focus. Honeywell continues to supply aerospace products including electronic guidance systems, cockpit instrumentation, lighting, and primary propulsion and secondary power turbine engines. In 1996, Honeywell acquired Duracraft and began marketing its products in the home comfort sector. Honeywell is in the consortium that runs the Pantex Plant that assembles all of the nuclear bombs in the United States arsenal. Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, successor to the defense products of AlliedSignal, operates the Kansas City Plant which produces and assembles 85 percent of the non-nuclear components of the bombs.
