Dragon Models 1/400 C-5M Super Galaxy, 418th Flight Test Squadron 436th Airlift Wing
The C-5 Galaxy, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is a well-known American military transport aircraft. In production since 1969, the C-5 was designed to carry oversize cargo over intercontinental distances for the US Air Force (USAF). However, technology constantly moves on, and in 1998 work began on modernizing the original C-5 Galaxy. The result was the C-5M Super Galaxy, an aircraft that is to serve on until 2040 and beyond. Key improvements include new engines under the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP), and updated avionics under the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP). The latter included new flat-panel displays, improved navigation and communications equipment, and an autopilot. The new power plants are General Electric CF6-80C2 engines with associated auxiliary power units, with these engines producing 22% more thrust than their predecessors. A C-5M is an aircraft that has undergone both these upgrade programs, with the first specimen flying in June 2006. A total of 52 aircraft will be modernized, comprising 49 C-5Bs, two C-5Cs and a solitary C-5A. Dragon Warbirds has produced the original C-5 in model form before, but now comes the C-5M Super Galaxy for the first time. The model depicts a test aircraft that has a special nose containing flight-testing equipment. Detail is finely rendered, and the aircraft is made exactly to the correct scale dimensions. Naturally, the die-cast model features the required new GE engines that were fitted to the C-5M. This aircraft, with more power and greater efficiency, is now airborne in the Warbirds range from Dragon.