The Blue Angels’ C-130J will return once again to Marshall Aerospace in the UK to have its center wing box replaced, adding decades to its lifespan.
Marshall Aerospace has announced that the U.S. Navy Blue Angels’ C-130J, better known as “Fat Albert,” will return once again to the company’s Cambridge, UK, facilities for maintenance. Specifically, the aircraft will have its center wing box replaced, adding decades to its lifespan.
As we reported in the past, the current support aircraft of the Blue Angels is not new to the UK’s skies. In fact, the aircraft is the former Royal Air Force Hercules C5 ZH885 which was refurbished and repainted by Marshalls Aerospace, before flying to the team’s home base at NAS Pensacola, Florida.
“Fat Albert’s return to Cambridge will be a moment to celebrate for the entire Marshall Aerospace team. We are grateful to the US Navy for trusting us once more with such a valuable asset, and are pleased to undertake this expert work as one of a small handful of center wing specialists.”
– Chris Dare, MRO Services and Solutions Director, Marshall Aerospace
“Fat Albert” is expected to arrive in Cambridge later this year, although a timeline is not available. The specialized maintenance will allow to extend the aircraft’s useful lifespan by more than 20 years, says the company in its press release.
Additionally, the aircraft will also undergo routine maintenance while at Marshall, including a full paint strip and repaint in the highly distinctive Blue Angels livery.
Fat Albert’s “spinal surgery”
Marshall Aerospace has described the center wing box replacement as a complex engineering procedure akin to an invasive spinal surgery. The comparison is not casual, as the center wing box is a critical structural component of the wing.
Specifically, this is the major primary structure that connects the aircraft’s outer wings to its fuselage, and thus bears significant operational load and sustains exceptional stress during flight. The center wing box is a “lifed article,” meaning that it has a finite operational lifespan in terms of total flight hours or years in service, based on the total flight cycles and the fatigue they cause.
Once the component has reached its end of life, it will need to be replaced in order for the aircraft to remain airworthy. This way, the safety of flight will still be preserved, preventing structural failures because of the fatigue.
This is especially important in Fat Albert’s case, as it kicks off each Blue Angels show with a 15 minute demonstration which includes high-speed low-altitude passes, steep climbs, sharp banks and combat landings. This obviously takes a toll, resulting in elevated stress and fatigue on the airframe over the years.
As a consequence, this also requires an unusual degree of expert care and maintenance planning, says Marshall. Fat Albert is currently the only C-130 to perform regularly in demonstration flying displays.
C-130 center wing box replacement
Here is what we recently wrote here at The Aviationist about the C-130’s center wing box replacement:
The C-130 is renowned for its longevity, with some aircraft flying for nearly 70 years. However, even the sturdiest airframe experiences wear over decades of demanding operations. Critical components, including the center wing box, which connects the fuselage to the outer wings and bears significant flight loads, have defined operational lifespans, typically around 20 years. Once these limits are reached, replacement is essential to maintain airworthiness.
Lockheed Martin developed an enhanced service life center wing box that can extend a C-130’s operational lifespan by over 20 years. Replacing it is a highly complex process comparable to invasive spinal surgery, requiring specialist engineering knowledge, certified kits, and precision tooling.
Marshall Aerospace has pioneered this work outside the United States. The process involves removing surrounding components including wings, fuel systems, wiring, and plumbing, then safely detaching the old center wing box using overhead cranes. The aircraft’s main structures are inspected, and any issues are rectified before the new wing box is installed and connected. Modernized plumbing, wiring, and removable fairings are integrated to simplify future maintenance. Extensive ground and flight testing follow to certify the aircraft.
Since the 1970s, Marshall has completed nearly 80 center wing box replacements on legacy and current C-130 models, extending the combined service life of these aircraft by over 1,600 years. Their expertise has earned them recognition as the world’s first authorized Centre of Excellence for C-130 center wing box replacements.
Fat Albert C-130J
The U.S. Navy retired in 2019 the former “Fat Albert” C-130T Bu.No. 164763 that flew more than 30,000 hours with the Blue Angels since 2002. The aircraft was famous also for the spectacular jet-assisted takeoff performed during air shows until the last JATO bottle stocks ran out (something that sadly we won’t see with the new “Fat Albert”).
NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command) chose to replace the C-130T with a divested UK aircraft because of the major cost savings and because due to the high operational tempo the Navy couldn’t take the replacement aircraft from the fleet. The Hercules was in storage as the RAF retired the standard C-130J (Hercules C5) and decided to keep in service only the longer C-130J-30 (Hercules C4).
While the Hercules C5 ZH885 was refurbished and repainted by Marshalls Aerospace, the team’s pilots transitioned to the new Hercules variant and travelled to Cambridge. The new livery designed for the “Fat Albert” C-130J was unveiled in 2020, with some significant differences from the old one.
