Lebanon Valley’s airspace was abuzz Friday, Jan. 10, as local residents watched a few unusual visitors take flight on a clear, cold day.
With the first snow geese passing through Lebanon Valley en route to summer breeding grounds in the Arctic – some thousands of which may end up as temporary residents of Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area – two much bigger birds soared nearby.
Read More: Avian flu kills 100s of snow geese near Allentown; is Middle Creek threatened?
One Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy with tail number 87-0043 took off this morning from Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts headed for Harrisburg International Airport (MDT), where it made approximately a half-dozen touch-and-go practice landings.
Another Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy with tail number 86-0020 did the same, only this one took off from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
A spokesperson for the 439th Airlift Wing, which is based at Westover, said it was a usual training mission for pilot proficiency and air crew proficiency. The mission of the 439th Airlift Wing is combat ready airmen providing rapid global mobility.
The Harrisburg airport is used for numerous military touch-and-go training exercises because it has an extremely long runway (10,001 feet long) and it’s outside the congested airspace of the northeast corridor.
The C-5M Super Galaxy is the largest aircraft used by the Air Force. The Air Force’s 52 C-5B/C/M are stationed at four bases across the country – Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Travis Air Force Base in California, Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, and Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts. Westover is the largest Air Force Reserve base in the country.
In 2013, another C-5M Super Galaxy based out of Dover Air Force Base made the news locally for its own touch-and-go training exercise.
The aircraft are part of the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, which has the mission of airlift for U.S. armed forces and presidential and senior leader airlift. Today’s flights took the planes over Palmyra, Hershey, Manheim, Mount Gretna, and Hummelstown, as well as lots of time above Middletown where MDT is located.
The C-5M Super Galaxy has five sets of landing gear, 28 wheels, and a 140-ton cargo load capacity.
As of Friday afternoon, both planes were back at their bases for further exercises.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with additional information after publication about the 439th Airlift Wing.
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