skylinefirepest Loc: Southern Pines, N.C.

Hey Act...but what kind of aircraft did you jump out of??

Latsok Loc: Recently moved to Washington State.

C-130s are not referred to as blackbirds, but there are special mission C-130s that are painted black and perform missions that are not the usual C-130 cargo hauling type missions, bit rather they are specializing in much different missions. That may be what your friend's father probably was referring to. .

KillroyII Loc: Middle Georgia

I was in the Air Force, 20 years, and worked ECM (Electronic Countermeasures), EW (Electronic Warfare), and ELINT (Electronic Intelligence).

I believe you may be getting the "blackbird" name from someone who worked on, what is called... a "black" program... short description of "black" program is it is Special Access. Working those programs, everything tends to get the "black" placed in description... whether it is part of the name of something or not. So, within the Air Force, officially, they may (or may not) have referred to those C-130 with a special configuration as "blackbirds" but the people working on or flying them would call them blackbirds nontheless.

Several configurations of C-130s were used by the USAF, CIA, etc... and sometimes a joint mix of personnel and aircraft ownership... could have been called blackbirds; however, sometimes they were black... sometimes the bottom was black... sometimes they were gray... etc.

NDMarks Loc: Dublin, Ca

I was in the Air Force, stationed at a base that also had the AC-130 gunships. The AC-130 came under the name of Spectre. Maybe what is being referred to here is Black Ops. As has been said, the only "Blackbirds" were the SR-71 although the AC's were Black Birds"

Harry P Loc: United Kingdom

Thank you everyone for your insights! :)

catskinner Loc: Middle Kansas

I was in the Army station at Ft, Campbell, KY. I was in the Combat Engineers as a Heavy Equip. Oper. One day in 1964, we loaded up my TD 20 dozer, a jeep and 3/4 ton truck in a C-130 and flew out for a hour and then returned to base. Never heard them called anything but C-130a.

GregS Loc: Central Illinois, USA

I agree. There is only one "Blackbird" and it's the SR-71.
(It's predecessor is the A-12)

https://sofrep.com/news/the-a-12-sr-71-blackbirds-forgotten-elder/

It must have been his Unit that called the C-130's Blackbirds....maybe big time wantabes.

goofybruce

There is an Air National Guard base near Schenectady, N.Y. which is home to the 109th Airlift Wing, the only unit which flies C-130s equipped with skis. Their mission is re-supply of bases in Antarctica and they land directly on the ice. I used to live just off the north end of the base close enough to make out the pilot through the window. They used to have an air show there each year. Got to fly with Thunderbirds on a demo flight one year (pulled 10Gs) and had an opportunity to fly with Blue Angels another year but a medical issue kept me on the ground (as an aside, the reporter to went in my place made use of the air sickness bag when the pilot did a roll on takeoff). Other than B-52s, I believe the C-130 is the "oldest" plane in the active Air Force inventory.

ntonkin Loc: western Upper Peninusla of Michigan

What you're referring to here is Commando Solo which flies EC-130Js. This unit supports Army Psychological Operations units and their existence is NOT classified. They reel a long antenna out of the tail of the A/C and can broadcast radio and television programing, what else they can do, I can't remember or am not aware of. There are no active duty squadrons flying this aircraft or performing these types of missions. I have never heard the EC-130J called a "Blackbird".

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Guys, I and a couple of others already found articles about C-130s that were referred to as "the black birds" or "a black bird", not Blackbird as a name because they were painted black, at least on the belly, for night missions. I also posted about the CIA aircraft painted black with glossy black markings in Vietnam. Most of these black birds (as in black because they are painted that color and birds as in aircraft) that I have read about were AC gunships, though some of the CIA planes were not. By the way between the AC-47s and the AC-130s we did have some AC-123s in Nam for a short time. I seem to even remember hearing of one Army C7A "Caribou" being turned into a gunship about the time they had the AC-123s. But they finally settled on the AC-130s because of their range, loiter time and ability to carry so much more in the way of weapons and ammo for the weapons.

We had units of gunships, both fixed wing and rotary, that answered calls for night missions that basically only worked the "night shift" so if I had ever seen them in the daytime it would not have surprised me at all for them to be very dark colors or outright black. Maybe even camo patterns in dark green, brown, blues or black and gray.

One AC-130 unit that we could sometimes hear on the Tac Ops Center radios at night just sort of cruised the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" at night searching with infrared heat detection gear for hot spots of bodies or vehicle engines. They flew high, so anyone on the ground wouldn't hear them until they were overhead. There were also AC-130s that cruised the trail in the daylight going after bed down areas and vehicle parks in the jungle reported by ground scouts, often LRRP and Special Force patrols.

Long ago I read an article about developing paint jobs for night bombers, I believe it was in WW II that they finally found that solid black actually showed up from below more than mixed black and gray or dark and medium blue camo patterns. The solid colors created a plane shaped silhouette, while the mixed dark and medium to medium-light tones broke it up against the night sky and stars.

Toolking Loc: Pacific Northwest

Often times airplanes that were used in "spy" operations were called Black Planes refering to the Black Ops that they performed. Sometimes they were painted black for night ops. Not Blackbirds, except many refer to their A/C as Birds.

As an example, in VietNam days the Navy had several Black EA3's stationed in Atsugi. They were often referred to as black airplanes.

dnay1

spent over 20 years with large cargo planes including the C-130 and yes, there was a C-130 E/H but the term BlackBird referred to a mission of the AF Special Operations Command. Google C-130 Blackbird and he can find a lot of info.

Steven Loc: So. Milwaukee, WI.

I was in the Marines in Vietnam and at times had to travel in them (C-130's) and never heard them referred anything but "130's".

whfowle Loc: Tampa first, now Albuquerque

The C-130 was a workhorse in many ways. It was rugged and could land and take off from just about any air strip, improved or otherwise. Saved my bacon a few times. It was modified to do many missions and still serves in most of those roles. If it was called a "Blackbird", that meant it was being used for black ops. Most, if not all, of those missions were classified. If it was called a blackbird, that designation was probably local to the units who were performing the mission and not a general title like Hercules.

petrochemist Loc: UK

In the UK the C130 is called 'Hercules' so that makes sense.
The Blackbird (SR17) is a very different beast as far as the world in general is concerned.
I guess a parachutist might name a plane after it's paint job, but if they use that outside of their local group they can expect to be ridiculed!