The WC-130 Hercules Jet That Can Fly Through Tropical Storms

Packing winds that can exceed 150 mph, hurricanes are among nature’s most destructive forces. Their fury unleashes storm surges and torrential rain and has been known to reshape entire coastlines, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. It is hardly surprising, therefore, to see airports shut down and airline companies canceling flights just to avoid flying into them.

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But what if we told you that there exists an aircraft that pilots deliberately fly into hurricanes? The aircraft in question goes by the name WC-130 Hercules. Operated by the U.S. Air Force and built by American defense and aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin, the WC-130 Hercules sails right into the depths of the most powerful hurricanes to learn more about them. It’s equipped with a bevy of instruments that provide critical details about a hurricane’s wind speed, intensity, and direction of the movement to gain as much data as possible and ultimately save lives.

Its manufacturer calls it the world’s most powerful meteorologist, but it’s more widely known as the “Hurricane Hunter,” thanks to its ability to stand up against one of nature’s most destructive forces.

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The idea of direct reconnaissance of hurricanes came out of work in the early 1930s by Capt. Walter L. Farnsworth, a naval reserve officer stationed at the hurricane-prone port of Galveston, Texas. He was unhappy with the scarce amount of hurricane-specific detail sent by the Weather Bureau in Washington.

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Back then, Farnsworth recalled in a 1957 interview, the only way to track a hurricane’s movement, strength, and possible path was to rely on data sent by ships sailing in the ocean. Given that news of an impending hurricane reduces the number of ships plying the ocean, it was difficult to get reliable hurricane-related information. Farnworth’s idea for getting around this was to send boats loaded with meteorological equipment into the Gulf of Mexico. While his idea at first met resistance, eventually the Coast Guard started monitoring hurricanes using boats, he said, and later the Navy used airplanes.

The first hurricane reconnaissance flight happened on Sept. 2, 1935, when a small open-cockpit plane piloted by Capt. Leonard Povey went out to track the path of the Labor Day Hurricane. Nearly eight years later, on July 27, 1943, Col. Joseph Duckworth became the first person to deliberately and safely fly an aircraft into a hurricane, flying right into a Category 1 storm brewing around Galveston. This flight opened up the field of aerial hurricane reconnaissance flights that now are undertaken by aircraft like the WC-130.

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With the success of initial weather reconnaissance flights, the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1943 set up the 1st Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. It used a modified version of one of the most notable planes to fight in the Battle of the Pacific, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, to monitor the North Atlantic. By 1946 the 59th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron had been created, with three B-29 bombers flying out of Castle Field, California.

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These aircraft underwent several modifications throughout the late ’40s and early ’50s before they were designated as WB-29s by the Air Weather Service. The period between 1945 and 1956 witnessed eight accidents during missions involving WB-29s, which finally led to the service seeking a safer, more reliable aircraft. This was Boeing’s WB-50D Superfortress, basically an improved version of the WB-29.

By the early 1960s the Air Force started replacing the WB-50’s with a new, more advanced aircraft, which we today know as the WC-130 Hercules — modified variants of Lockheed Corporation’s versatile transporter, the C-130 Hercules, that had entered service in 1956. On April 14, 1965, the first C-130 was delivered to the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, and later modified to the WC-130E configuration.

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The WC-130 has witnessed several modifications through its lifetime, resulting in variants including the WC-130A, WC-130E, WC-130B, and WC-130H. The Air Force’s Air Weather Service continues to use the WC-130 for weather reconnaissance missions; the latest variant, the WC-130J, was introduced to service in 1999.

Despite bearing the “Hercules” nametag, the Lockheed WC-130 doesn’t look particularly imposing, paling in size compared to the likes of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and the Lockheed Martin C5 Galaxy. Thanks to its quad propeller design, quirky-looking nose, and unique cockpit design, the WC-130 looks quite different from most modern-day planes. The unconventional are unsurprising given that it was designed in an entirely different era. While different variants of the WC-130 have been around since the late 1950s, its airframe design hasn’t undergone significant changes over the past seven decades.

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Only 10 WC-130Js are currently in operation, all operated by the Air Force’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. The latest WC-130Js typically carry a five-member crew: a pilot, a co-pilot, combat systems officer, aerial reconnaissance weather officer (meteorologist), and a weather reconnaissance loadmaster whose job is to ensure that all the equipment required for a particular mission are correctly loaded in the aircraft.

They also carry several weather-focused instruments, including a Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer used to monitor wind speeds and rainfall amounts. The WC-130J can also deploy parachute-equipped GPS dropsondes used to collect data about the atmosphere surrounding the hurricane, which is transmitted back to the aircraft by radio.

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The WC-130J measures a shade under 100 feet long with a wingspan of 132 feet, making it roughly the size of an Airbus A220. Powered by four Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 turboprop engines, each making 4,700 horsepower, it can safely operate at altitudes up to 28,000 feet and has a maximum speed of around 417 mph. But its optimum cruise speed is around 300 mph, at which it can stay airborne for more than 18 hours. Since the average weather reconnaissance mission lasts around 11 hours, covering 3,500 miles, an 18-hour flight time gives the aircraft enough leeway to plan for emergencies.

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A typical reconnaissance flight into a hurricane involves the WC-130J entering the weather system at around 10,000 feet, penetraing the eye, then circling about 105 miles away from the eye to collect data surrounding its structure. These reconnaissance flights have helped increase the accuracy of hurricane predictions by more than 20%. Data collected during them is sent to several weather agencies, including the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which uses it to predict a hurricane’s path and the amount of danger it may pose to human life.

Thanks to several equipment upgrades, the latest generation of WC-130J aircraft will remain the mainstay of the 53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron for the foreseeable future. Two additional WC-130Js are expected to join the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fleet by 2030.

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