What Was The Largest Plane To Ever Land On A Carrier?

Aircraft carriers are a marvelous thing — massive sea fortresses heavier than most vehicles on land that manage to stay afloat while carrying multiple aircraft. Of course, they have their limits, mostly stemming from the fact that carriers' landing strips are on average just 300 feet long. This means that aircraft that fly to and from carriers are designed specifically for that purpose. Most of these aircraft are relatively small, less than 60 feet long, and with wingspans under 50 feet wide, with fighter jets being a prime example of this size. This makes it easier to launch from the carrier thanks to aircraft catapults that use high-pressure steam to sling aircraft forward for takeoff.

Throughout the years, though, some aircraft carriers have seen unconventional landings from planes that were not originally meant for carriers. The biggest of these — and to date the biggest aircraft to ever land and take off from a carrier — is the C-130 Hercules, which stands at 97 feet long, and 132 feet wide in wingspan. This is one of the most impressive military transport aircraft in history, and its carrier landing was no small feat.

The C-130 Hercules was initially designed to transport cargo and troops, as well as used for medical evacuations. The C-130 first took flight in 1954, and has been used ever since, making it one of the oldest aircraft still in service. During the Vietnam War, the Navy did experiments to find out whether they could use the Hercules as an aircraft to deliver cargo from one carrier to another while in the middle of the ocean. 

Tests took place in 1963 from the USS Forrestal. Few modifications were made to the C-130 Hercules: fitting it with anti-skid brakes, while the underwing fuel pods were removed, as well as smoothing down the aircraft's nose to make a more compact fitment for a landing gear. According to Joseph Earl Dabney's "Herk: Hero of the Skies," the plane's wingspan cleared the flight deck control tower of the Forrestal by just under 15 feet. In total, the C-130 Hercules did "29 touch-and-go landings, 21 unarrested full-stop landings, and 21 unassisted takeoffs." 

Even if it wasn't used as a carrier cargo transport as the test was meant to measure, it does still hold the record for the largest aircraft to ever land and take off from a carrier.