A transport aircraft design that was almost 20% larger than a C-5 Galaxy was created as part of a study known as ACMA or Advanced Commercial/Military Aircraft
Two very huge cargo aircraft could transport even more than one could, wouldn’t you think?
That was the fundamental tenet of this hypothetical design, which engineers at the former Lockheed-Georgia Company in Marietta, Georgia, examined in the early 1980s. A transport aircraft design that was almost 20% larger than a C-5 Galaxy was designed as part of research known as ACMA, or Advanced Commercial/Military Aircraft. The multibody transport depicted above, according to Code One Magazine, utilized the fundamental ACMA design with a connected wing and six engines. Notably, the flying deck is only present on the left fuselage. Although this aircraft could figuratively transport tons of cargo, it was difficult to find enough runways that were broad enough to handle it.
In comparison, the C-5 can fly on runways that are 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) long, which is an impressive capacity (especially given its size).
Compared to other USAF airlifters, the C-5 has a larger capacity able to transport 81 troops and 36 regular pallets at once. The Galaxy can also handle any air-transportable combat equipment available to the Army, even large objects like the 74-ton mobile scissors bridge. Reduced freight transfer times are achieved by ground crews’ ability to load and unload the C-5 simultaneously at the front and rear cargo slots. The C-5’s other features include:
– To disperse weight, there are five sets of landing gear, totaling 28 wheels;
– Faster and simpler loading is made possible by the nose and aft doors, which open to the entire width and height of the cargo compartment;
– A “kneeling” landing gear arrangement that enables the aircraft to be lowered to allow for drive-on/drive-off vehicle loading and raises the cargo floor to a height appropriate for a truck bed;
– Double rows of vehicles can be loaded onto full-width drive-on ramps at either end;
– A maintenance diagnostics system that reduces maintenance/repair time by collecting and analyzing data from more than 800 (C-5A) and 7000 (C-5M) test points.
Photo by Lockheed Martin