It was conceived for an attempt at the Iran hostage rescue mission of the
later 70's.. If memory serves, the plan was to land inside a soccer stadium,
and then JATO out after the recovery of the hostages...The test video is
something to see...


"jeremy" wrote in message
...
wrote:
So far as I know, no one has
ever attempted "for real" to use the C-5 as an assault
transport.

I here of some bozo who had the bright idea of reversing the JATO
mountings from a c-130 to shorten the run out. Had to swap out both inners
due to "pitting". What really happened is that every rock under 5 lbs was
tossed forward and a good number tried to negotiate the intakes under full
reverse thrust. It did cut the landing from 1,500 meters to about 1,000
but I think the necessity for flying in two engine replacements and doing
the change out in less than ideal conditions prevented a repeat
performance.