C-390 going after the C-130 - Curt Lewis

 

How a Brazilian Cargo Jet Is Taking On the Mighty C-130J Super Hercules

Why fly a turboprop when you can fly a jet?


Lockheed's C-130 Hercules is the plane that never dies. A tactical-that is to say "medium-sized"-cargo plane, it's the go-to when the situation doesn't call from something as titanic as a C-17 Globemaster or A400M Atlas. But the C-130 is no spring chicken. Around the world, the trusty planes are aging out and due for replacement.

Enter the KC-390: a twin-jet, T-tail airlifter built by Brazilian aerospace company Embraer, known previously for its regional airliners, and now for the largest aircraft ever built in South America. Sure, there's already a C-130 replacement in the form of Lockheed's larger, more modern C-130J Super Hercules, but the similarly-sized KC-390 can fly faster and higher thanks to its use of turbofan jet engines instead of turboprops like the C-130J.

A fly-by-wire digital airplane which can carry up to 57,000 pounds of cargo at a maximum speed of 540 mph, the KC-390 beats out the C-130J's max carrying weight (42,000 pounds) and max speed when at full capacity (416 mph). Depending on the configuration, that means the KC-390 can tote: 80 troops, or 66 paratroopers, or three HUMVEEs, or a Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk helicopter, or a LAV-25 combat vehicle.

KC-390 BEATS OUT THE C-130J'S MAX CARRYING WEIGHT AND MAX SPEED WHEN AT FULL CAPACITY.

That's thanks to its International Aero Engines V2500-E5 turbofans, rated at 31,330 pounds of thrust each, which also allow the KC-390 to cruise up to 36,000. Theses engines are specially adapted for military use, but at their core they're the same, highly-common engines that power airliners like the Airbus A320 and McDonnell Douglas MD-90.

Ultimately, like the C-130J Super Hercules, the KC-390 is ready for any mission from troop transport to cargo airdrop to aerial refueling to search and rescue and aerial firefighting. It can just do it while carrying more. And do it faster, covering greater distances in a single crew duty day and flying more missions using the same amount of flight hours.

That better top speed has real, practical benefits in the field. Embraer points out that in a search and rescue mission with a pretty typical 1,250 nautical mile radius, a KC-390 could cover the ground two hours faster than even the fastest turboprop.

But the jet engines are not without their downsides. The KC-390 consumes more fuel than the C-130J-a pretty natural outgrowth of its increased speed. And while the KC-390 is designed to operate from short, unimproved airstrips just like the C-130J can, Embraer hasn't specified the plane's exact takeoff and landing distances, and critics argue that its turbofans are more susceptible to damage by foreign objects when operating at sites that are a little rough.

CRITICS ARGUE THAT ITS TURBOFANS ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO DAMAGE BY FOREIGN OBJECTS.

Fortunately in cases like that, pilots should have plenty of situational awareness thanks to the KC-390's avionics suite, with five multi-function displays and daylight and thermal imagery generated by a nose-mounted synthetic vision system. That, and oversized cockpit windows, which Embraer claim that pilots just love.

Elsewhere in the cockpit, active side-sticks combine with the digital flight control system for precise hand-flying control. And, like any good tactical airlifter, the KC-390 has self-protection systems including ballistic protection against small arms fire, critical systems redundancy, radar, laser, and missile approach warning receivers and infrared countermeasures.

The first KC-390 prototype flew in February 2015 and the first production aircraft are slated to be delivered to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in 2017. Eventually 28 aircraft will replace and complement the FAB's C-130s which are 40 years old on average. And since the KC-390 exceeds the C-130's performance in terms of payload, speed/altitude and cost, there's a good chance it might take over entirely.

And not just in Brazil either. An extra sales point, reaffirmed at the recent Farnborough Air Show, is that Embraer has teamed with Boeing to market and support the KC-390 worldwide. That'll make competing with the C-130J less of a Herculean task.