C130 "Snoopy"

[Dan D'Air]

Does anybody know what happened to Snoopy, the Met. Research aircraft, which used to operate out of Farnborough?

[viper3111]

It was being used as an egine test bed at marshals, I think?

[HighlandSniper]

If I'm not mistaken it's now flying from Cambridge as the A400M engine flying test bed.

[pikey01]

As the other guys have said, its now the A400m engine test bed aircraft. A little more info here:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ngine.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Dan D'Air]

Brilliant! Thanks guys.

[viper3111]

My old man worked on her when she was still snoopy when she used to pop in and out of Marshals of Cambridge

[Dan D'Air]

Anybody got a picture of her now?

[pikey01]

Anybody got a picture of her now?

Ive a feeling Bollo or one of the other Mildenhall guys did have, definatly seen some posted on here before?

[T_J]

Anybody got a picture of her now?

Images at the following.

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... entry=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TJ

[Unknown74]

Yes I remember her well from IAT 1993, sadly the only time I saw her as Snoopy never seen her since and I always thought she was an interesting Herk.

[johnhowe]

The Preston Branch of The Royal Aeronautical Society is hosting a lecture by Iain Young of Marshalls Of Cambridge. "A400M
Flying Test Bed" (Snoopy) it will be held in the Lecture Theatre at BAE Systems Warton at 19.30pm on Wednesday the 13th,
January, 2010. Entrance is by membership card.

[Dan D'Air]

Thanks all.
Nice to see that she is still doing sterling service.
An interesting aircraft for sure!

[TonyO]

Would be nice to see XV208 converted back to a standard C1 Hercules, because we rather need some spare Hercs, somewhat urgently...

[RickIngham]

I could swear i read somewhere (possibly PPRUNE) that it wouldn't be in service for anyone again and if it couldn't go to a museum it would be scrapped.
As TonyO said, would be valued back in the C-130 fleet...

[T_J]

Debated on the following. It doesn't look likely to be a candidate to be returned to service life. Suggested on the following that it might end up being dismantled for spares.

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic. ... lit=snoopy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showth ... ght=snoopy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TJ

[ColintheCaterpillar]

Would be nice to see XV208 converted back to a standard C1 Hercules, because we rather need some spare Hercs, somewhat urgently...

How quickly could they do it? I'd bargain not long enough before the K OSD to make it worthwhile.

[BOLLO]

Hello chap,here are a few from her last flight last year.Was told the the scrapman was waiting for her with open arms as she was worth more as scrap than anything.Sad. .







Hope this helps you in anyway with your question.

[Doughnut]

I would guess that XV208 is too heavily modified to tbe used as a standard transport, maybe breaking for spares. Seem to remember a report that the orginal 'Snoopy' nose was still stored at Marshall's that alone would make a nice exhibit at the Boscombe museum even if the whole airframe can not be saved.

Bit of tread drift - but as the RAF are so short of Hercules (?) Why could they not reactivate some to the original C-1 and C-3 that were returned to Lockheed when the C-4 / C-5 were delivered ? Same applies to the ex Norwegian C-130's which were photo'ed at Davis Monthan recently. So much for our NATO allies helping out.

[TonyO]

Would be nice to see XV208 converted back to a standard C1 Hercules, because we rather need some spare Hercs, somewhat urgently...

How quickly could they do it? I'd bargain not long enough before the K OSD to make it worthwhile.

It wouldn't have to be theatre standard, just a runabout and training hack to reduce the hours on the remaining Ks. Big question, perhaps you know, is when is the K OSD? It's a pretty moveable feast at the moment. The 'slicks' should have gone last month, but OSD is now July and there is no sign of the A400M at the moment or any other tactical airlift option.

[Doughnut]

Instead of the scrapman getting hold of her,why don't Duxford Museum display her.

1)
Because Duxford will not pay to buy the aircraft from the MOD, when the MOD can and remove any usefull spares and be paid a (small) sum for the scrap weight of what is left.

2) Duxford has no space to display it under cover.

3) Why does Duxford want an unrepresentive 'test' airframe, surely better to wait and hope to receive a 'standard' model when the time comes.

It is a shame that national collections do not have a 'hit list' of significant airframes, not just aircraft types. For the Hercules XV196 or XV200 are both still current and sould be preserved. Why ? XV200 was the first C-1P converted by Marshalls, in double quick time, to have a probe for in flight refuelling, a vital requirement in resupply during the Falklands in April 1982, XV196 is the only other surviver of the six aircraft used in the South Atlantic.