South African Safair to buy civilian new C-130J Super Hercs.

[Stratofreighter]

Safair (FA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) parent firm, the ASL Aviation Group, signed a Letter of Intent with Lockheed Martin (Palmdale) for an order of up to ten LM-100Js at the ongoing Farnborough International Airshow 2014.

See
http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/ ... s-lm-100js

First deliveries are expected late in 2018 pending the completion of FAA certification.

The LM-100J "is essentially a replacement" for the current Safair fleet of nine aging C-130s, said ASL Aviation Group chief executive Hugh Flynn. "What we are talking about with Lockheed is a gentle transition. We have been backing up the L-100 fleet with 737 Combis. But they can't do what a Hercules can do, things like oil slick spraying and so on.

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?o ... e&id=35523

http://aviationweek.com/farnborough-201 ... vil-c-130j

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-201 ... 05989.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/1 ... IO20140716

[SquAdmin]

Does anyone know why they would prefer LM-100J over C-130J's?

[ehusmann]

If I understand it all correctly, the C-130J was certified for civil operations, but the certification needed to be updated in order to actually sell them (due to changes in the airplane). That updated certification is now the LM-100J. More info

Erwin