America’s C-130 transport plane is one of the most iconic and reliable workhorses of the United States military. It first saw action in the Vietnam War, when the United States needed to transport large amounts of supplies and personnel into a country that had few reliable airports. As a propeller-driven plane capable of landing and taking off from makeshift, short runways—while even under intense enemy fire—the C-130 became one of America’s go-to transportation planes.

It was so popular, in fact, that another variant, the AC-130 Spectre Gunship was spun off. The AC-130 Spectre is basically a close-air support (CAS) warbird that could hover over a hot battlefield for hours, pumping molten lead and bombs over the target area. Indeed, there seemed to be a plethora of ideas for how next Lockheed Martin, the developer of the C-130 and AC-130, could spin another variant off. 

By 1979, the Vietnam War fiasco was blessedly over. But it wasn’t long before the Americans found themselves embroiled in another foreign policy nightmare. This time, the Iranian revolution. Indeed, Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is likely the single greatest U.S. foreign policy disaster in the Middle East of the post-World War II era. 

The outcome of that revolution essentially set the Americans on the path to being diminished and pushed out of the Mideast by blood-thirsty jihadists.

The Context of the XFC-130H’s Creation

The origins of the XFC-130H go back to the events of Operation Eagle Claw, which was President Jimmy Carter’s rescue attempt to save the U.S. Embassy staff in Tehran who had been taken captive by the Iranian Islamist revolutionaries and were held hostage for an astounding 444 days. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of that bumbling, first-ever attempt by the Pentagon to conduct a joint covert operation between elements of the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army Special Forces—something we take for granted today—the idea of placing rockets on C-130 transports was born.

One key component of Operation Eagle Claw was that all three elements of the joint force were supposed to meet at a rallying point in the Iranian desert in the dead of night. As I describe in my book, The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy, through a comedy of errors, one of the C-130 Hercules transport planes collided with one of the Navy’s RH-53D helicopters supporting the operation at that rallying point, causing chaos and prematurely ending the mission.

To overcome the failures of America’s first attempt at “jointness,” the military devised Operation Credible Support. As part of that operation, Lockheed’s concept behind the XFC-130H rocket transport came about. One of the big problems was that helicopters of the era lacked adequate range to get from U.S. Navy ships to places deep within Iran. And the number of helicopters needed was far greater than what could be reliably fielded (without such a covert action becoming quite overt—and costly). The Pentagon thought to have a single, massive transport plane that could physically land as close to the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran where the hostages were being held. The closer to the embassy, the better, as it would allow for the rapid deployment of ground troops to save the hostages and flee quickly.

But where would a large conventional plane land and takeoff from?

The Need for Rocket Speed in Covert Operations 

The plan for Operation Eagle Claw had been to land some of the Navy helicopters in the Amjadieh Stadium near the embassy. That’s fine for helicopters, but not so great for large aircraft. Even though C-130s were designed for short landing and takeoff areas, they still needed more than 3,500 feet of open field to land and takeoff from. And their weight was limited in those conditions. The stadium, according to Military Matters Online, ”had perhaps just 400 feet of usable space for the mission, plus the aircraft needed to be capable of clearing [the 33-foot stands].”

So, Lockheed and the Pentagon mounted eight forward-pointed rockets from the ASROC anti-submarine weapons the Navy uses to defend their surface ships from enemy subs and placed them on the forward fuselage. These eight powerful rockets would blast into action the moment that the plane hit the stadium ground. Thus, they’d perform a massive breaking action for the plane (the rockets would be pointed out, propelling the landing plane in the opposite direction it was landing, thereby stopping it quickly).

On the backend of the fuselage, another eight rockets from RIM-66 Standard surface-to-air missiles were mounted beneath the plane, pointing backward to literally blast the plane into the unfriendly skies above like a rocket ship. Two additional ASROC rockets were placed vertically beneath the tail to ensure that the back of the plane didn’t strike the ground below as it was rocketing to the skies above the small stadium.

As if that weren’t enough, the pyromaniacs at Lockheed strapped another eight rockets, this time from Shrike anti-radar missiles, vertically above the wheels, to be—and this gets me every time—exploded when the plane hit the ground (meant to cushion the plane on its hard landing). Another four Shrike rockets were placed under the wings to make it easier to control the aircraft’s yaw when it blasted off from the stadium. Further modifications included extended ailerons, double-slotted flaps, and fins.

Basically, this thing looked more like a monster and less like a C-130.

Oh, and XFC-130H (they should’ve called it the “Hellfire”) was fitted with a tailhook for aircraft carrier landings because when one dreams, they should go big or blow up—I mean, go home. 

Not a Total Failure 

Shockingly, initial tests in the fall of 1980 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida were promising. The plane took off like a Saturn V rocket. The XFC-130H, probably the coolest plane ever designed by Lockheed Martin, broke multiple short takeoff records. 

Alas, what goes up must inevitably come down. 

As it turns out, landing a rocket plane on less than 3,500 feet of dubious runway, in battle conditions, is not as easy or fanciful as it sounds. The aircraft crashed down to the ground hard. One of the supped-up wings on this beastly bird ripped away from the fuselage while the plane itself became a falling torch. In an incredible turn of fate, none of the Lockheed engineers onboard were harmed. The program was shut down and marked as a failure.

Still, the idea of a large, rocket-propelled transport lives on.

At the dawn of the Global War on Terror, the U.S. Marines toyed with the idea of purchasing one of Richard Branson’s sub-orbital spaceplanes and converting it into a troop transport of sorts. The Air Force has spoken about possibly using SpaceX’s reusable rockets to transport personnel and supplies to hard-to-reach parts of the globe.

Sure, the XFC-130H was a failure. But the idea behind it was great.

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.