Civilian C-5 Galaxy?

CzechAirman

Well-Known Member
Was watching TV tonight and saw a commercial for Theraflu and they had a civilian painted C-5 Galaxy that was used in the commercial. They showed it being loaded as well as taking off. I didn't know there were any civilian Galaxies. Who operates it and how many do they have? What are their hiring requirements? I would assume that most of their pilots are former military C-5 drivers?
 
I spent my Air Force time where they trained C-5A crews. The training aircraft had a 10,000 lb block of concrete at the most forward station all the time.

Two C-5A's were configured as Space Container Modification (SCM) birds. The ballast (pet rock) was necessary when empty due to the removal of the entire troop compartment aft of the wing. The aft pressure door and ramp were modified as well. #exC-5guynerdhatoffnow#
 
Was watching TV tonight and saw a commercial for Theraflu and they had a civilian painted C-5 Galaxy that was used in the commercial. They showed it being loaded as well as taking off. I didn't know there were any civilian Galaxies. Who operates it and how many do they have? What are their hiring requirements? I would assume that most of their pilots are former military C-5 drivers?

The AN-124 is very similar to the C-5 and several airframes are in civilian operators that operate them commercially
 
It was offered as an airliner...way back when, as the Lockheed L-500:
L500.jpg
Entex%208213%20L500%20c5a.JPG
 
It was offered as an airliner...way back when, as the Lockheed L-500:
L500.jpg
Entex%208213%20L500%20c5a.JPG

Never went into production though.......not that fuel efficient, the high operational costs and the advent of the 747. The maintenance costs are supposed to be rather high also. The carriers just didn't have any interest when push came to shove.

There is supposed to be a civilian version of the Herk J model in the works, but I don't think it will be operational until 2018. I was actually reading about that the other day because I am trying to learn something about the differences between the J and H models.

Here's a rendering from Lockheed:

getasset.aspx
 
Last edited:
Didn't Boeing have a similar design that looked like a high wing 747 that lost to the C-5? Obviously the 747 carried on and was very successful, but I wonder?
 
Didn't Boeing have a similar design that looked like a high wing 747 that lost to the C-5? Obviously the 747 carried on and was very successful, but I wonder?
They had a design in the works that they submitted because they were also bidding on the contract, but they lost out to Lockheed, and I have no idea what it looked like, anymore (I am old lol) It was called, I think, the CX-HLS (designation for the contract). I'll have to search around the net to see if I can find a rendering of it. I am fairly sure it was not really like the 747 in concept as that design was all Joe Sutter. The desire for the 747 was spawned by Pan Am who wanted a much larger aircraft and they were in talks with Boeing long before the military contract bid. The 747 was a civilian concept only even though later a few later versions/models were purchased by the military, but that was pretty limited.

Edit: here we go...this is a model of it:

boeing-cx-hls-model-196364_19149.jpg
 
Last edited:
A friend of mine was riding jumpseat in a real G-IIB leaving Honolulu about the same time as a 747, they figured they would get back to southern California ahead of the 747. They were wrong, the 747 just kept pulling away, egos bruised and lesson learned everyone landed safely.
 
Back
Top