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AIRCRAFT LOCKHEED C5A SUPER GALAXY On The Move: Flying the US Military's BIGGEST Plane Into a War Zone PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk_ZsLfVHW8
Flying the US Military's BIGGEST Plane Into a War Zone On The Move Aug 23, 2025 139K subscribers ... 213,677 views ... 1.7K likes #OnTheMove In this episode of Mighty Planes, we go inside the cockpit of the C-5M Super Galaxy, the largest and most powerful cargo plane in the US Air Force. The plane measures an impressive 75 meters long, nearly 20 meters high, and has a wingspan of almost 68 meters. Follow the crew attempting a record-breaking, non-stop flight from Dover Air Force Base to a combat zone in Afghanistan. Subscribe to On The Move to watch more documentaries: http://bit.ly/369zkpx Any queries, please contact us at: owned-enquiries@littledotstudios.com Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:01 The C5 is the largest plane in the US Air Force. This baby's Cadillac with a mighty job. Flying cargo into a war zone. You are writing the next chapter in this dynasty. On tap for this C5 crew fly their Super Galaxy non-stop to Afghanistan in record time by refueling in midair. You feel moment? When it's time to air fuel, it's game time. If you're coming in too fast, that may create a dangerous situation. It's a marathon mission going into a combat environment at night. There's a lot of factors against us that puts the C5 in the line of fire. [Music] Do Air Force Base just outside of Philadelphia. His home base to a fleet of aircraft unparalleled on the planet. You guys are standing in jumbo country. 1:06 This is arguably the most strategically important mile and a half strip of concrete on the east coast. Contact. This bustling airfield is the starting point for tons of supplies shipped to US forces in Afghanistan. [Music] On the ramp, Major Jason Wolf directs traffic. Dober Air Force Base moves more cargo than anybody, hands down. It starts right here and goes straight to the war fighter. For cargo too large and too urgent to be shipped any other way, the Air Force relies on the C5, America's biggest strategic airlifter. [Music] 2:05 The pace is relentless. You guys get ready to push. All right, slow down a little bit. Slow down a little bit. There it is. Let's not get carried away. All right, slow down. Slow down. Every day about 150 giant pallets are flown out of do on C5s. That's the equivalent of more than five 747 cargo jets. I'm talking game changing principle. When I can land on this puppy, you can't put on four or five other birds. You got the corner in right here on this C5 bound for Afghanistan. Wolf needs to load almost 55,000 kg of cargo in just 2 hours. We have to push this thing. He's got eight crew members to help him get it on board. This massive plane is a beast of burden. Capable of carrying 140 tons, the weight of six city buses, almost as long as a 3:04 football field and more than six stories high. Its wingspan stretches over 60 m. [Music] Hydraulics in the nose lower the big plane to truck bed height and a ramp on furls for speedy loading and unloading. [Music] What needs to get there now? What needs to get there fast? What needs to get there critical? We'll move everything from as small as a one lb electronic component box with a gyroscope all the way up to a nuclear submarine prop. Wolf and his crew wrap up the job 30 minutes ahead of schedule. In less than 48 hours, this C5 will land in Afghanistan. [Music] On the outskirts of Kabul, Magram airfield is a lynch pin in the effort to 4:01 supply US forces in Afghanistan. The war, a response to the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001. has lasted over a decade. There are more than 100,000 troops on the ground and everything they need to survive in combat comes from halfway around the world. Tower runway 3, full length estimated 350 at three. Clear to land runway 3 and much of it arrives in Bagram on the mighty C5s. [Music] Right now we have download the Apache behind me and then behind that we have a couple of Hueies as well as some pallets we can offload as well. This is a combat zone and the base is a prime target. So the rule is get in, offload and get 5:00 out fast. We want to minimize the ground time of the C5 because obviously when it's in the air it's moving cargo through the pipe. Back in Dover, more than 100 C5 pilots, engineers, and load masters are involved in the effort to get life-saving equipment to soldiers in the field. Colonel David Hayer prepares his handpicked squad for their missions into hostile terrain. I've stood in this room many times and told you guys you're a dynasty. You are writing the next chapter in this dynasty. If you're not in this room, then you want to be in this room. For Hayafer, the C5 is much more than a big transport plane. It's a potential knockout punch. Nobody ever gets to tell anybody in this room, thank you for supporting the war fighter because you are the war fighter. Those airplanes are weapons. They may not have bombs hanging off the bottom of them, but when you have a kinetic force 6:03 that you want to deliver, we get that payload on the C5. And we put that ability in in the war fighter hands. One thing in conclusion, fly the hell out of these airplanes. Fly the airplane. Captain Scott Carral is about to do just that. The C5 pilot has just received orders for a flight to Afghanistan that leaves in 2 days. Afghanistan is an auster environment. It poses new challenges. Obviously with the traffic and train are big uh big issues in Afghanistan. Every time we go in there uh you're always on the uh edge of your seat and have a heightened awareness. Carell is a veteran C5 commander, but this flight will be different. He'll attempt to set a new world record by flying non-stop from the US to Bagghra in under 14 hours. 7:00 C5s out of Dover usually land in Europe for refueling in a crew change before continuing on to Bagram. But Carral will cover the almost 10,000 km distance without ever touching down. His record- setting attempt will be made in the latest model of the C5, the C5M Super Galaxy. C5s have been the military's workhorse for more than 40 years now. Now the fleet is getting a massive overhaul. At Loheed Martin's Marietta facility in Georgia, Greg Russ heads a program to transform some 50 aging C5s into state-of-the-art C5M super galaxies. What we're doing to this aircraft is unbelievable. We're taking an aircraft, these B models, bringing them back in here, and we're actually redelivering those aircraft, which with much more capability. It's mainly new engines and avionics, but the upgrade includes 70 items and 8:03 can take a year to complete. We're removing sticks, actually taking uh fuel probes out. Something new we've been doing is changing out these uh jack screw assemblies as needed. In the next few days, Russ's team will mount new engines and install a state-of-the-art glass cockpit. If all goes well, they'll deliver a recristened C5M Super Galaxy back to do. The new Super Galaxy is a gamecher, giving pilots the ability to fly non-stop almost anywhere in the world and redefining just how fast and how far every resupply mission can take them. All right, good morning. Breakfast up. I'm the uh air fuel instructor this morning on the air. The non-stop flight will require a delicate and dangerous air-to-air refueling. If you see a malfunction or have something that's not safety of flight, please just stay what it is. 9:01 Tell us to back out. Carell and his crew need to show they can execute the maneuver flawlessly in a training mission or they risk losing out on the job. Air fueling is one of those things that if you're not doing it on a monthly or weekly basis, you will get rusty doing it. The risks are real. Two huge aircraft flying just a few meters apart at almost 500 km an hour. margin for error zero. When you have two aircraft this size operating that closely together within 10 ft of each other, I mean, it's obviously pretty big deal. If you are by any means unclear of what we are doing today, please speak up. I don't mind telling you 10 more times what we're doing. Which can I leave you? Everything about the mission is scrutinized, including the weather. Even slight turbulence can be deadly. We're going to be on air at 3:15 from 15 to 16 Zulu. Clearing right now. There's some stuff to the west moving slow to the northeast. Ready to go. Engineers and load masters give Corral 10:04 C5M Super Galaxy a thorough pre-flight safety check. [Music] But just before takeoff, that looks like a hole. A glitch. The pre-flight exam reveals a small hole in the airframe by the rear cargo doors. And we can't have any dents, nicks, scratches, or anything on this panel. So, that little hole is no good for this. So, they're either going to have to um The tiny puncture could cause a loss of air pressure in flight and put the crew in danger. until it's fixed. This super galaxy isn't going anywhere. Captain Scott Carell wants to make history. Uh we are on 6025 as the first to fly a C5M Super Galaxy non-stop from the US to Afghanistan in 11:00 less than 14 hours. We're going to be setting a world record and uh with that is is a lot of notoriety and we're looking forward to it and uh setting another record in the C5M. But their training mission to rehearse an aerial refueling maneuver has been delayed by a tiny hole in the C5's airframe. While they wait for a fix, Corral and co-pilot Ian Turner make the most of the downtime by heading to a simulator and let me know on the throttles when the airline and we can start flying from there. All right, coming off freeze. Aerial refueling is one of the most difficult assignments for C5 pilots. Even in a simulator, the job demands the crew's full attention. We have two jumbo aircraft here um both flying within 15 ft 10 to 15 ft of each other uh at extremely high speeds. When it's uh time to air fuel, it's it's it's like kickoff in the NFL. It's game time. It's a dangerous but essential element for a 10,000 km non-stop flight to Bagram. If Carral can do it, he will 12:04 prove the C5M Super Galaxy can move supplies to Afghanistan faster and cheaper than ever before. When you over control the airplane, it is not friendly to you and uh will exacerbate any uh negative scenario you may have already. The fate of the C5 and tanker crews are in their hands during the maneuver. So Corral and Turner aim for seamless coordination. In the air, there will be no second chances. The C5M Super Galaxy has a 21st century glass cockpit, including the latest navigation computers to help the pilots rendevous with the tanker. They are a key component in the C5M modernization program. At Lockheed, aging C5s are stripped of their old analog instruments to make room for new digital displays that keep pilots constantly a breast of their position and performance during their mission. But the electronic upgrades spread far 13:03 beyond the cockpit, and that means a massive rewiring job. John Evans makes sure everything is going to the right place. This is the flight deck uh encompassing the nav station, the flight engineer station, pilot, co-pilot. More than 11,000 wires are threaded through the big plane. They'll control everything from flaps to landing gear to the lights in the cargo bay. We're routing in the incoming wires. We've already deleted the wires that have to be brought off the airplane. And now we're adding the wires coming back in. and we route them to the appropriate place. Evans has to keep track of 166 kilometers of new wiring. There is a method to the madness. It does it. It is a little overwhelming to look at at first. [Music] When the new flight deck is finished, this 30-year-old C5 will be as upto-date 14:02 as a modern jetliner. It's a good, sturdy airplane with much better uh electronics now. It takes a lot of the workload off the pilot. Some things are automated now where before they had to manually do or think about something. Uh computers take care of a little bit of that for them. Now, back at do, another C5M Super Galaxy has been prepped and Scott Carell's training mission is back on track. This delayed us about uh 30 45 minutes which is enough time to miss our tanker today. So we're trying to uh move as fast as we can out of here uh to make our timing today. While Carell hopes to show that his team is up to the job of setting a world record in the C5M Super Galaxy. The training flight is especially important for co-pilot Ian Turner. He'll fly the C5 to within 15 m of the tank. 15:02 Mother stand. Let's do it. If he's ever going to sit in the captain's seat, he will need to deal with the pressure to get it right. CWA is removed or yeah, removed. Jumbo 70 heavy runway active via Delta hold for Corell Turner and the two flight engineers. It's all systems go. Clear for takeoff. Clear for takeoff. The big plane hurdles down the runway. In just 30 seconds, it's doing 225 km an hour. Go. Takeoff speed. Gear up. Heading sl,000 flaps up. Pops up. Verify. Executing. Executing. The refuel training mission is on. uh your average air transport pilot in the civilian community does not get to fly within uh 10 ft of another aircraft, 16:03 especially one this size uh in the contact position. So, it's definitely a dangerous maneuver and requires a high proficiency uh skill level to accomplish the maneuver. Within 15 minutes, the Super Galaxy has climbed to a cruising altitude of 20,000 ft. They missed their original rende and are racing to catch the tanker before it calls an end to the day. 292 pilot Lieutenant Ian Turner Car's co-pilot is moments away from taking control and putting them just steps away from the tanker. Uh today I'll be flying the rende boot. So uh I'll be getting us about 50 ft away from the tanker and then Scott will be taking over and actually doing the aerial fueling. For the C5 crew, everything is on the line. The slightest error by either pilot could be catastrophic. In 36 hours, Captain Scott Carral and his crew will attempt a record- setting flight to Afghanistan. 17:05 Watch the speed of the desert, but only if they prove they can handle a dangerous midair refueling of their C5M Super Galaxy holding the IP to descend. Weather is still looking sc and out of clouds. We have light to moderate turbulence. Already at the rendevous point, the tanker circles at an altitude of 21,000 ft. Carral will bring a C5 onto the plan rendevous track 300 m below the tanker. When he's within a kilometer and a half, he'll start a slow climb while gradually reducing speed. The final 15 m are the most crucial. Once hooked up, fuel will flow to the C5's 12 fuel tanks built into the wings. Inact. They're now within sight. We're about 15 miles from the tanker. We just 18:01 got visibility on them now. Uh the open lights on. Free contact check completed. Thanks. It's white knuckle time for corral and crew. In the tail of the tanker, Sergeant Adam Craft, the fuel boom operator, prepares for a face-to-face meeting with the C5 at almost 500 km an hour. Every time we're uh scheduled for a C5, it's always kind of remarkable. We do a lot of big airplanes. This one is, you know, by a a large margin a lot bigger than all the rest of them. As the two giant planes come closer together, the swirling winds around them reach hurricane force. It's a phenomenon Corral and Turner need to compensate for, literally on the fly. What it can do is cause our nose to come down. So, we may need some uptrim in there, and it's causing the tanker aircraft's tail to rise, so they're going to have to trim as well. Making slight adjustments in the cockpit 19:01 will allow both pilots to maintain altitude without aggressively pulling back on the stick, but it takes a deaf touch. If you're coming in too fast, that force can be uh too great, and uh they they may not be able to trim at a fast enough rate. It could create a dangerous situation. It could easily turn into a bad situation if we're not all paying attention. Scott hands the controls to the end. Ready to jump back in at the first sign of trouble. Nice and stable. Nice and slow. [Music] Little high. You feel movement? Yep. I feel movement. Very nice. See? Nice and stable. Staying in there, feeling around up and down. Nice thing about the M is power. You need it, it's there. How's that feel? It's a lot easier than I thought. That's a good thing to say. Rather opposite. Good. 15 m from the tanker, Scott takes back 20:03 the controls. And the hardest part begins. Moving the final 10 m to the fuel boom. Right here. Looks pretty good to me. It's a pretty good picture. Corral uses visual references, sound cues, and surgical precision on the controls. [Music] With the C5 in position, it's now up to Sergeant Craft in the tanker to guide the boom into place. All right, we just got contact with the tanker. Nice stable on the envelope here. and uh just maintain position here. Behind corral, the flight engineers go to work opening the tabs and distributing the fuel. We're constantly monitoring the system. So, as the fuel comes on, we'll make sure it comes on in the correct sequence. And we have fuel coming into each side of our manifold. We don't 21:02 want, you know, one wing having all the fuel and vice versa. Now, under the same pressure as the pilots, no one on board wants to be the guy who slips up. If we fail at getting the gas, you know, our mission mission would fail. After 1,000 lb of fuel is pumped into the C5, it's mission accomplished. I'm going to disconnect now and back out to the tanker. Nice and slow, 100% movement. Once we are laterally separated, we're going to uh descend to 1,000 ft below the tanker. As the C5 slips away from the tanker, there's a sigh of relief on the flight deck. Air-to-air refueling requires C5 pilots to demonstrate their precision. However, arriving in Bagram on the other side of the world demands some aerobatic skills. Bagram airfield has been the target of several attacks. To land safely, C5 pilots must perform a 22:06 hairraising tactical approach. 350 at three, clear to land runway to land. It's a stomach turnurning roller coaster ride that ends with a steep dive to the runway. Captain Austin Horn has just put his C5 through one. It's the size of a 747, but this thing uh can maneuver and bank up like anything else. And uh it's hard to imagine, but it really does do a great job uh getting into tight areas, getting it in here swiftly and safely. The resupply mission runs 247, giving pilots barely enough time to stretch their legs. The C5s are on the ground in back room no more than 4 hours. Just minutes after landing, this C5 is peeled off. revealing its cargo, two helicopters, including an 11,000 kg shimach, 23:06 vital for moving troops and supplies into the heat of battle. This aircraft is one of the few aircraft that can carry the outsized cargo. So, if it's if it's big enough to be traveled by air, this is the only thing that's going to take it. 1 2 3. In less than 30 minutes, the Chinook is off the C5 and good to go. car. And 30 minutes after that, this C5 will be heading back to the US. Good morning everyone. Just an overview. Uh on Sunday morning, you will be leaving to Bum. Back in Dover, Carral and his crew get an intelligence briefing on enemy activity around Bram. US blamed a network for multiple attacks in Kabul. During this attack, it was assessed that they use RPGs, AK-47, and also IEDs. Just briefly, if they needed a reality check, they're getting it now. Does anyone have any further questions? All right. 24:06 Thank you. Tomorrow, Carell and his crew will begin their record setting flight into the line of fire. Captain Scott Carell and his crew are four hours from taking off on a non-stop 14-hour flight to Afghanistan. If successful, it will be a record-breaking flight for Corral in a C5M Super Galaxy. We got about 51 total from ARIP to exit time on the track. The devil is in the details. Every what if is considered. They're going to want to come out early, like, you know, to try to hit us and give us our gas and say that's it. Including the failure to refuel in midair. A mustave if they're going to make it non-stop. There's a point what we have uh in on an air fueling track called the bingo point. If by that point we have not received required gas that we need to continue onto our destination, uh we 25:04 will divert to an alternate location and land. Meanwhile, the ground crew gives Corral Super Galaxy one last top to bottom inspection, including the big wheels, 28 of them attached to five sets of landing gear. We had to make a few adjustments earlier to make sure it rotates enough so it doesn't hit anything as it goes up, damage anything. Yeah, good to go now. [Music] Then it's on to the flight line and an engine exam. We're pulling out magnetic chip detectors to make sure we don't have particles from the engine that could possibly damage the engine. 26:00 Across the base, Tech Sergeant Wally Schmidt is in charge of sourcing the load for Corral Super Galaxy. We normally plan for 120,000 pounds of cargo, even though it can carry a lot more than that. He uses computer software to work out where it will go in the C5. You don't want to be nose heavy because then the, the pilot be pulling up too much. If it's too tail heavy, you know, basically flip over. As soon as he hits send, a squad of milliondoll robots springs into action. Everything the troops in Afghanistan need is stored in Dover's massive warehouse, packed onto numbered pallets, each weighing more than 4,500 kg. Once the robots retrieve the pallets for Corral's flight, they're trucked out to the plane. Major Wolf supervises the load. The cargo includes new panels to protect 27:01 armored personnel carriers and replacement props for a Hercules C130. [Music] It's all strapped securely into place for the dizzying descent into Bagram's combat zone. Nothing worse. You're dropping 10,000 ft really quick. People always compare it to being on a roller coaster. Your hands go up. Well, guess what? We don't want the cargo to go up. We want to stick tight and be right. With the C5 loaded, four pilots, three engineers, and five load masters are ready for a 14-hour journey to the other side of the world. and into the record books. 302 30 02. Copy. Thanks. Free flight. Uh 28:05 I just did a radio check. Right now I'm just getting everything booted up so we can uh do normal operations. Get ready to start engines. Make sure the top is on top. The one big variable, weather. Right now at the air refueling point, it's borderline. To set the world record, we'll have to complete our air refueling. Obviously, if we have to divert tonight, uh the world record will go by the wayside. It's taken the combined efforts of hundreds of specialists at Dover to get the C5M Super Galaxy ready. Now, it's up to Corral and his crew to come through. We're real pressed for time right now. Uh we have about 20 minutes till checklist. Uh three things still need to be done uh for our sequence of events to get this mission uh departing on time. Among the upgrades that put the Super in Super Galaxy are four powerful new CF6 turboan engines. They deliver better performance and fuel economy than the old TF39s, but installing them has been a challenge 29:10 for Loheed engineers. Each new engine is almost 500 kg heavier than its predecessor, and that means reinforcing the C5's wings. Let's take a look down the side. Jason Nichols supervises the changeover. If we didn't beat this structure up and we put those new engine ons, it would absolutely rip this wing apart over time. The stress fractures and the and it just would not be able to take the thrust that these engines are going to be putting out. Accommodating the new engines requires a replacement of the cowling, fortifying the pylons that connect the engine to the wing, and finally reinforcing the skeleton inside the wings to withstand the increased stress on the airframe. We cut out the existing structure and put in something more beefed up, able to hold the thrust of those big engines. The process takes more time and manpower 30:04 than any other modification on the C5, but it's worth it. There are emissions and capabilities where you have to push your equipment to the limit and we just want to get these planes ready to where they can do just that, maybe even beyond. 05 visibility 10 miles, 900 scattered 14,000 22.22 22 niner 8 niner for ner back at do corral super galaxy is ready for takeoff heavy when you make departure fly runway heading maintain 3000 runway one 380 tons of plane fuel and cargo are on the move the new engines each delivering over 50,000 lb of thrust propel the C5M super galaxy into the night sky. 31:00 But the real challenge for Carell and his crew has only just begun. To set a world record, they'll need to put in a flawless 14-hour performance. Captain Scott Carell and his crew are on route to Afghanistan. You got them all. Mind right on the oceanic chart, too, please. carrying 112,000 lbs of cargo, their non-stop flight from the US will set a record if they touch down in less than 14 hours. For about 50 minutes from coasting out uh across the ocean, climbing to 31,000 ft, they'll overfly Boston before heading out across the North Atlantic. They'll need to complete a perilous refuel over the North Sea before continuing across Eastern Europe and finally into Afghanistan. Corral is scheduled to rendevo with the tanker in 6 and 1/2 hours. And unlike 32:00 their training run, this time they need to arrive on time. We were about 7 8 minutes early, so we went ahead and slowed the airplane down uh to get us a little bit behind. Over the ocean, the flight crew monitors their position, but leaves the flying to the Super Galaxy's new and improved autopilot. It automatically corrects for winds and root corrections and maintains us on center line for our roof. North 030 West, 57 north, 020 West. [Music] The Super Galaxy has new engines and avionics, but the galley remains old school. Uh, we only took the finest of frozen meals on here and it looks like we're going to be having lasagna and a little Texas toast today. Yeah, everything tastes better at 30,000 ft. The C5 will cross 10 time zones in 14 hours, throwing body clocks into a tail spin. Yeah, fatigue can be a big issue for us. Uh, especially on a flight like today where the alert time for us is at night, 33:01 so we've been up for most of the day. is getting any sleep is very crucial. On this flight, Corral and Turner are the A team at the controls for the aerial refueling and the tactical approach at Bagram. Refueling is definitely an event that you want to be well rested for. So, uh, during the coast down, I'm going to be jumping out of the seat and letting a couple other crew members fly and I'm going to try and get some sleep in the bunk room. Pat's checking off. See you, Rockstar. Getting them across the Atlantic falls to the B team, led by Lieutenant Colonel Matt Ahern, who's content to play a supporting role on this record-breaking flight. The outcome of this mission could change military resupply operations. If it succeeds, the C5M Super Galaxy will prove itself capable of moving heavy loads farther and faster than ever before. 34:00 Back at Lockheed, the hope is that this non-stop flight will be the first of many for the C5s being overhauled. C5M, the RP modification is complete on this aircraft. Modification effort to it is just an outstanding aircraft. After 11 months in the shop, another C5 has been reborn as a C5M Super Galaxy. Finished product to everybody in this business. Uh you take a look at it and it's just a just a great feeling of pride. For some watching the C5M embark on a second career is a reminder of their original roll out from the same facility over 40 years ago. I remember as a kid here in Atlanta hearing them take off and watching them come over the the airfield goes way back for me. The love of watching these giant things that don't 35:00 look like they should even be able to fly. It's an incredible sight. After a few hours of sleep, Corral is back at the controls and on his aame for the critical airto-air refueling. We're about 1500 miles from the tanker. He is in sight off of our 1130. As they come up on the rendevous, Carell delicately maneuvers the super galaxy directly below the tanker. The weather, once borderline, is now clear and bright, giving Corral another problem. A blinding early morning glare. He struggles to get the visual references he needs. The sun can still pose a uh a huge limitation for a fueling. The two planes are less than 10 m apart. The boom extends toward the C5. 36:06 Corral tries to meet it. Finally, using the shadow of the tanker to block the glare. Ah, yes. That looks like a good picture to me. Not 43. He hooks on. Using all the envelope to kind of shade yourself with the sun is is a good technique and we were able to do that and get our gas today. All right. 100,000 lbs of fuel flows into the C5 in just over 15 minutes. With their tanks topped up, Coral and crew will spend the next 6 hours cutting across Eastern Europe before reaching Bagram's busy airspace. V Bum Tower, runway 3, full length of an estimated 350 Z at three. Clear to land runway 3. 37:01 Shelby Strong is an air traffic controller at Bagra. He'll slot corral C5 into a maze of traffic. We can be talking to aircraft up to 20 m out, up to 20,000 ft, overhead the field at 15 to 20,000 ft. They spiral down. controllers in Bagum benefit from his 20 years of experience commanding traffic stateide. And so everything that I've done throughout the years has led to a point to where I was able to work this traffic here. It certainly is as complex as it gets. And and just throwing in the the little things that go along with being in a war zone made things interesting on a daily basis. The C5 demands particular attention. It needs to touch down on the longest runway and it needs plenty of personal space. keeping aircraft that uh away from them, you know, so that they're they don't get knocked out of the sky, especially the helicopters. 38:01 And that's that's the the aircraft that will wind up getting closer to the C5s because they'll be departing off to the side. Carral and his Super Galaxy are now 20 minutes from touchdown and on track to set a world record. But now in Afghan airspace, they're within reach of hostile fire. So the crew prepare themselves and their cargo for a bumpy ride down. All right, we're beginning our uh initial descend into Bram now. Everyone on the airplane's in position for the combat environment and we should be on the ground shortly. After almost 14 hours in the air, nobody's talking about writing their names in the record book. They'd happily trade the notoriety for a safe arrival. It's been a long day. It's we've seen daylight and night twice on this mission. It's very unique. We've had an 39:05 air refueling extremely long sorty going into a combat environment at night with terrain and traffic and a high pressure altitude environment. Uh so obviously there's a lot of factors against us and now add one more corral gets a weather update from Bram and reach 324 heavy. Just be advised there is a 20 knot crosswind advisory effect at Bram number three following second. Strong crossways can create havoc for a giant like the C5. If Carral doesn't nail the landing on his first attempt, the world record will be out the window. After a marathon flight from the US and a successful aerial refuel, an exhausted C5 crew is on the verge of setting a world record. But Bagram's weatherman warns of heavy crosswinds ahead. Yeah. Four heavy bottom tower runway three. Check down 40:02 when has made it 320 at three. Clear to land. Turn to final. Right. I got the terrain in sight. Gears down. Flaps are landing. Clear to land. Descending below 10,000 ft. The super galaxy is vulnerable to hostile fire. But right now, the wind is their greatest threat. 303 pilot. All right, we got a fairly stiff cross on left to right. Okay, make sure it doesn't bounce around us. 215 decelerating flaps 40 checks left 40. Corral fights to keep the plane on the glide slope. Those are strong. I was on the left side, not on the right side. 100 50 40 30 20 10. 41:09 He steadies the plane. Very nice. And makes a textbook landing. In the dark, landing lights are left off as a precaution against attack. Nice landing. Good job. Cuz it was uh I tell you what, that wasn't just it was all over. It was like left and right. It was sporting. Oh, every time it is, especially after a 14-hour day. Everyone's glad to be down, but in no mood to celebrate. They need to park and begin offloading ASAP. This is kind of our biggest moment right now for potential incidents. In the cover of night, Corral taxis the C5 through the traffic and chaos of Bagram Airfield. [Music] 42:07 Finally coming to a stop at the ramp intact and on time. did an awesome job putting it on the deck. Smooth landing. Set the bar pretty high after the pressure of an epic flight and tricky crosswind landing. At last, Carral can catch his breath. Uh for the air crews, for the maintainers, the command and control system, uh we're all just proud to be able to go out there and move the mission with the C5. It's a fantastic airplane. And now the moment he's been waiting for, the chance to write his name in the record book. I have the paperwork right here. We're going to head up to the tower and talk to air traffic controller to report our official land time. In the meantime, load masters and ground crew go to work. 50 tons of cargo is transferred onto Bagram's monster trucks. 43:06 After a 24-hour workday, the crew still manages to offload the cargo in less than 90 minutes. Corral returns with good news. The tower confirms 9,573 km from Dover to Bagram, Afghanistan in 13 hours and 51 minutes. The fastest time ever for a C5 flying from the US. The C5M as usual was a rockstar. It's done uh phenomenal for us. Mission accomplished for the record-breaking crew and their remarkable aircraft. As more Super Galaxies are delivered, the Air Force will keep pushing the limits of their capabilities, flying them heavier, faster, and farther than ever before. 44:00 We attempted to break about 39 world records. Uh so if that goes well uh this aircraft the C5M will be the alltime all aircraft world record holder. We just received RFIR clearance to our ball and destination. For Carral and his crew it's a short hop to Europe and then finally back to do copy cleared part B. Having done their part to demonstrate the C5M Super Galaxy's new capabilities far exceed those of the original C5s. I think right now we're rewriting the books on what we can lift, how fast, and where it can go. There's nowhere in the world we can't reach. There is not one time when I won't turn around and stop if I'm walking and I see a C5 doing a touchandgo or doing a takeoff where I won't watch just in awe of that airplane. This mighty plane is expected to fly for another 30 years, proving that in the world of heavy lifting, it has no equal. Heat. 45:09 [Music] Heat.

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