How Can The Giant C-5 Galaxy Fly?

Look, I’m no engineer. My basic understanding of aeronautics is rudimentary. I mean, I understand the principle of lift and the airflow over and under the wings, but when I get on a commercial jet to fly somewhere, it really comes down to a matter of faith for me.

How something of that size and weight can lift off of the ground and stay in the air so gracefully defies everything but my imagination. I am always amazed looking down from 30,000 feet at the earth sliding by beneath me. Flight really falls into the category of the miraculous for me.

Now take a look at this video and see the U.S. Air Force’s C-5 Galaxy military transport aircraft. I don’t know about you, but this humongous plane truly blows my mind. I used to teach at a school in Tacoma, WA, and we would see these huge planes flying out of and into the McChord Air Base just south of Tacoma. The sheer size of them rising into the sky or descending was always awe-inspiring.

This video will let you see inside this behemoth, the C-5 Galaxy, and get some understanding of why and how it was built and what it is designed to do. One of the stats you will hear, which blew me away, is that the length of this plane, 143 feet, is longer than the total distance of the first flight of the Wright brothers at Kittyhawk. Makes you wonder what the Wright brothers would think about this monster.

One of the engineering wonders of this plane is the way that it can be loaded. It has two immense doors, one at either end, so that heavy equipment like battle tanks, portable bridges, armored vehicles, and the like can drive on and drive off. The nose cone itself is an engineering wonder.

The C-5 Galaxy can be configured to carry large numbers of troops as well. I can’t imagine how many tons the plane itself weighs before being loaded up with a full cargo, but the thing not only can fly, it can fly long distances, and, because of this, it has become one of the most effective transports in the world.

Watch this video and the other short video of one taking off and I think that you, like me, will be awed by the C-5 Galaxy. Fly, Fight, Win!