Eight to Four, a Day’s Work in Cheyenne

Maintainers have removed the four, eight-bladed NP-2000 propellers that had been fitted to a C-130 of the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing since 2007 as part of an evaluation at Edwards AFB, Calif. Wing airmen briefly returned the C-130 to the unit’s home in Cheyenne for the propellers’ removal. USAF testers have used this Hercules since 2005 to assess the performance of a modernized electronic propeller control system and the NP-2000s. Wing airmen found the C-130 to be more powerful, efficient, quieter, and easier to maintain with the NP-2000s. The aircraft will return to Edwards for the evaluation’s final stage to gather performance data on the C-130’s baseline propellers to compare with NP-2000 data. That testing should be completed by June. The wing’s C-130 is retaining the EPCS. (Cheyenne report by 1st Lt. Christian Venhuizen)