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Upgraded C-5 hits milestones in January

January was a big month for the C-5M Super Galaxy.

The cargo plane went to Iraq for the first time, completed its operational test-and-evaluation phase and officially went into the world aviation record books.

A C-5M flew to Iraq on Jan. 22 from Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, delivering 85,000 pounds of equipment. A C-5M also was scheduled to go to Afghanistan for the first time in early February, said 1st Lt. Brian Maguire, a spokesman at Dover Air Force Base, Del., where all three Air Force C-5Ms are based.

Still up for the C-5M: direct flights from the U.S. to the Persian Gulf. The long-range capability was a key reason for spending $148 million per plane to upgrade C-5s with the M varient’s more powerful engines. No date has been set for that flight milestone, according to Air Mobility Command.

Meantime, the Super Galaxys have been beating a path between Dover and Incirlik.

“We did the wartime operational surge where there was a C-5M leaving Dover every day for 30 days going to Incirlik,” Maguire said. “And the supersurge, where it was two flights a day for six or seven days.”

The increased tempo was part of the C-5M’s testing program, during which the three planes flew 1,300 hours and hauled 4.5 million pounds of cargo.

Now that the Super Galaxy has completed its testing, it will be freed up for use in worldwide operations, the Air Force says.

The 436th and 512th airlift wings at Dover are now “in complete ownership” of the three C-5M aircraft and can take advantage of their enhanced capabilities, according to an Air Force statement.

The Air Force plans to upgrade 52 C-5s, most of which are C-5B Galaxys, by the end of 2016.

The C-5M demonstrated its capabilities on Sept. 13, 2009, when it set 41 world records in a flight from Dover. The aircraft hauled a 178,000-pound payload and another 75,000 pounds of fuel to an altitude of nearly 40,000 feet in less than 28 minutes. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale certified the records on Jan. 19.