Big airplanes have been putting on increasingly dramatic performances at the Farnborough Airshow in recent years but it might be some time before anyone tops the loop performed by the civilian version of Lockheed Martin’s C-130 on Thursday. After doing progressively aggressive climbs and half inverted turns, Lockheed Martin Chief Pilot Wayne Roberts dipped the nose, gathered some energy and pulled into a full loop at show center.
The aircraft is properly known as the LM-100J and shares the same airframe, beefy Rolls-Royce AE 2100 D3 turboprop engines and six-blade Dowty R391 props that the military version has. It sells for about $60 million.
