Lockheed Tests C-5M

Lockheed Martin touted the latest test flight of its modernized C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft, saying the new version of the aircraft improves fleet availability and overall reliability and maintainability while cutting total ownership costs. The C-5M that flew for the first time last week from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., is the second of three aircraft that will comprise the new C-5M test fleet. The C-5M Super Galaxy program updates the engine and cockpit displays from the previous model. Updates include a digital all-weather flight control system and autopilot, a communications suite, flat-panel displays and enhanced navigation and safety equipment. The second C-5M test aircraft will be used mostly for utilities and subsystem tests, airfield performance and diagnostics testing, Lockheed said. “People can say it’s an old airplane, but the C-5M is a new version. It has so much more capability than the current fleet,” said Col. Devin Cate, 716th Aeronautical Systems Group commander at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. More