50 Incredible C-5 Galaxy Facts

It’s the largest cargo aircraft in the U.S. Air Force fleet - and one of the most fact-laden planes in the world. It’s sheer size and cargo capabilities give it a unique niche in the world of aircraft. Well, niche may not be the best word because niche refers to a small slice of corner of an area - and the C-5 Galaxy is anything but small.

Measuring 247 feet long, 222 feet wide and 63 feet tall the C-5 Galaxy is about 25 percent larger than the next biggest aircraft in use by the U.S. Air Force. The C-5 carries almost a half a million pounds of cargo, and weighs 838,000 pounds at its heaviest. Its cargo bay can hold 1.5 Blue Whales (the largest animal on earth).

Because the C-5 is so massive, and so important to the Air Force’s mission, it is expected to be around for a long time to come. This means upgrades are continually being made to its three variants (C-5A/B/C). The Galaxy was conceived in the mid-1960s and is expected to last until 2040. Enjoy these awesome facts!

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What a behemoth! One of the largest military transport aircraft in the world, Lockheed-Martin’s C-5 Galaxy can transport a little less than half a million pounds of cargo and people. It’s one of the only transport aircraft that can move five Apache helicopters in its cargo bay. It’s used for some of the most important missions in the Air Force. There’s a lot to learn about this aircraft and we think you’re going to be shocked by some of these true facts.


50. The C-5 Galaxy is the largest transport aircraft in the Air Force. This flying warehouse can deliver supplies or deploy combat-ready military units anywhere in the world. With record breaking size and half a century of service, the C-5 is easily one of the most interesting military aircraft to ever be produced. Here are some incredible C-5 Galaxy facts. Stick around and see what all the fuss is about, the last few images and facts are sure to surprise you! Enjoy this information and we hope you learn a thing or two.


49. The C-5 Galaxy is so large it takes 2,600 lbs of paint to paint the interior and exterior.


48. The total length of the C-5 Galaxy is 247 feet 10 inches. Roughly the length of 7 school buses.


47. It’s total wingspan is 222 feet 8 inches.


46. Each wing of the C-5 Galaxy weighs over 40,000 lbs.


45. The C-5 measures a massive 63 feet 2 inches tall.


44. The C-5 can carry 142 tons on 2 decks. The lower deck is for cargo and the upper deck has seating.


43. When empty, Lockheed’s biggest military aircraft weighs 375,000 lbs.


42. When loaded, the C-5 Galaxy weighs 838,000. Well over double its empty weight.


41. It’s maximum takeoff weight is 769,000 lbs but 840,000 lbs during wartime.


40. When fully loaded the C-5 requires 8,300 feet of runway for takeoff and 4,900 feet for landing.


39. The maximum speed of the C-5 is 601 miles per hour and a cruising speed of 586.


38. The C-5 can fly at a height of 34,000 feet. Also known as its service ceiling.


37. The Galaxy’s fuel capacity is 49,000 gallons, equal to the volume of an average five-room house.


36. The C-5 carries enough fuel for the average American car to make 31 trips around the world.


35. The C-5 has a range of 3,700 miles.


34. To power the Galaxy, each has 4 turbofan engines that measure 7 feet across.


33. The C-5 engines produce power equal to 800 average cars.


32. Each C-5 Galaxy engine consumes roughly 42 tons of air per minute.


31. C-5 systems require more than 100 miles of wiring and 5 miles of control cables.


30. The C-5 has roughly 1,658,800 fasteners.


29. The C-5 has a 24 ton cooling capacity which is enough to air condition eight average sized homes.


28. The C-5 Galaxy has 28 wheels. 4 in the front and 24 under the wings.


27. A singe tire on the C-5 weighs an average of 150.5 pounds. All 28 tires combine to weigh an astounding 4,214 pounds!


26. For cargo the C-5 loads through the nose versus through the back — opposite of the C-130 Hercules.


25. The length of the C-5 cargo floor is longer than the length of the Wright brothers first historic flight.


24. The C-5’s cargo compartment will hold 6 standard Greyhound buses or 100 Volkswagen Beetles.


23. It’s large enough to carry 5 Apache helicopters.


22. The C-5’s cargo compartment is big enough to hold an eight-lane bowling alley.


21. To fill the C-5 it would take about 26,000,000 ping pong balls.


20. You could fit 328,000,000 aspirin tablets inside the C-5.


19. If you’re hungry the C-5 can carry over 3,200,000 tortillas.


18. An entire Chinook transport helicopter can fit inside a C-5.


17. You can fit two M1 Abrams main battle tanks in the C-5. Each weighs 67 tons.


16. In the 1970s NASA considered using the C-5 to transport the Space Shuttle to Kennedy Space Center but they went with the Boeing 747 because of its low-wing design.


15. The C-5 goes by a few nicknames. F.R.E.D., Linda Lovelace, Fat Albert and Lockheed Hilton.


14. The USAF has operated the C-5 since 1969. A half a century.


13. The C-5 Galaxy’s development was complicated and Lockheed suffered significant financial difficulties.


12. Cracks were found in the wings of many of the C-5 shortly after entering service.


11. A $1.5 billion re-wing program began in 1976 to restore full payload capability and service to C-5s.


10. Their are multiple variants of the C-5 Galaxy with unit costs ranging from $100 million to $224 million.


9. The C-5 Galaxy has a typical crew of 7. Aircraft commander, pilot, two flight engineers, three loadmasters.


8. The C-5 upper deck has seating for 75 passengers.


7. The front landing gear can rotate up to 20-degrees during take-off and landing and 90-degrees while landed.


6. The Galaxy uses its front landing gears to kneel for loading but this has been the cause of numerous malfunctions.


5. The C-5 has played a major role in many disaster relief efforts including Hurricane Katrina, Irma and others.


4. Three C-5 Galaxy aircraft have been lost in crashes.


3. There have also been two class-A C-5 losses as a result of ground fire.


2. Many C-5s have now been retired with others remaining in service.


1. The United States Air Force spearheaded a Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) to keep the C-5 in the air until 2040. Now checkout these Best Images of Aircraft Nose Art.

Resources: Images & Info Military Machine

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 Fun Facts

  • 1. What's the difference in a muscle car and a pony car? In reality, not much. But if you want to get down to specifics, technically there are some differences between a muscle car and a pony car. The average passerby wouldn’t know that anything with a wheelbase length of less than 110 inches is considered a pony. It’s a smaller (not by much) uniformly designed vehicle with either a V6 or V8. Muscle cars were wider than that and required a V8. The Ford Mustang, was a pony. As was the Chevy Camaro and the Plymouth Barracuda.
  • 2. Australia was big into muscle cars in the 1960s and 70s. Australian muscle cars gained popularity around the same time as American muscle cars with some of the top manufacturers being Ford Australia, Chrysler Australia, and Holden.
  • 3. The Dodge Charger is a quintessential muscle car. Three years after the first charger was produced in 1966, a key visual change was made. The 1969 Dodge Charger was the first year the vertical split grill was added to the vehicle. The vertical split grill was a calling card for Chargers in the 60s and 70s. The 1969 Dodge Charger was made even more famous as General Lee in The Dukes of Hazzard.
  • 4. As with anything worth caring about, there’s some disagreement. The Ferrari 250 GTO was a rare and popular vehicle in Europe. Pontiac’s chief engineer, John Delorean, saw an opportunity to give his employer an edge. ‘GTO’ was not patented in the States, so Pontiac decided to borrow it. From 1961-1964, the Pontiac Tempest was their muscle car. The 1964 Pontiac LeMans GTO, with a 325 horsepower V8 engine, was the first muscle car on the US market with GTO in the name. Most people agree that it stands for ‘Gran Turismo Omologato’ – in reference to the Ferrari 250 GTO’s professional racing status. However, some folks still believe it stands for ‘Grand Tempest Option’.
  • 5. The muscle car boom wasn’t limited just to the United States. Australia had just as fervent of a muscle car culture as America did. Ford and Chevy produced several various types of muscle cars in cooperation with Australian manufacturers. The 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT was a massively popular creation in Australia. After production, it disappeared for about two decades, making it even more popular than before. The 1971 Holden Monaro 350 GTS Coupe (a GM product) is commonly referred to as the most stylish of all Australian muscle cars.
  • 6. The television and movie actor James Garner had a noted affinity for everything speed. His hit movie Grand Prix won multiple Oscars, and on television, he appeared in a Pontiac Firebird regularly on The Rockford Files. Something lesser known was that Garner was a devoted racer. He once had a 1970 Oldsmobile 442 outfitted with a 4×4 chassis in order drive in off-road races. Inside of this classic muscle car, he finished second in class in the Mexican Nora 1000 (later the Baja 1000).
  • 1. The first Pontiac GTO was built in 1963, labeled as a 1964 model. Six years later, the enormously popular muscle car was the benefactor of a special branding effort for the 1969 model. Very little, mechanically, changed from the 1968 Pontiac GTO. But the blacked out grill, spoiler, racing stripes, ‘The Judge’ decals all added to the fan fair over this enticing new model of the GTO. The Judge got its name from Sammy Davis Jr.’s “Here Comes the Judge” skit on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In television show.
  • 2. In 1968, Dodge made 50 Dart 426 Hemi cars to satisfy the NHRA sanction rules. These cars were sent to the Hurst Corporation to have a 426 Hemi engine installed, feature a fiberglass hood, front fenders, no side mirrors, lightweight steel, and thinner glass in an effort to reduce weight. Dodge intended the car to be used only for racing and not on public roads.
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  • 6. Look at a dollar bill, and then subtract an inch from it’s length. That’s how wide the breakproof glass is on the Presidential State Cars is; 5 inches thick! The Presidential State Car has five-inch thick breakproof glass for maximum protection against any threat to the high-ranking officials inside. This is just one of the many precautions from exterior threats that “The Beast” is outfitted with.
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  • II The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a compact executive car produced by Daimler AG. It debuted in 1993 being built at the Mercedes-Benz factories in Sindelfingen and Bremen, Germany. They all aren’t as beautiful as this 2013 C63 AMG – but still, the classic C-Class Mercedes is an icon! The ‘C’ probably stands for classic. And although it is widely used in the U.S.A, it may be operated even more commonly in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The C-Class is one of the most well-known models of vehicles in the world! No surprise it’s on the list of best-sellers.
  • III The Toyota Camry debuted in 1982 and has been sold globally. It originally was designed as a Compact Car, now it is a mid-size car. Dependable, long-lasting, low-maintenance – no wonder it’s been tasked to the streets of NYC as the dominant choice of car owned by cabbies. What started in 1982 as a narrow-bodied compact car and then transitioned into a mid-size car has sold over 10 million editions since then.
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  • V The Mazda 323 or the Mazda Familia was a family car produced by Mazda from 1963 to 2003. The one shown here is probably the most beautiful in the line of Mazdas, the 1965 Mazda Familia. The line of Familia’s transitioned into the Mazda 323 in 1977, but in the United States, the vehicles were known underneath a different moniker. The “GLC” which stood for Great Little Car was the going title up until the switch to 323 as the name. However, after a decade or so, the 323 became what it is called today in America – the Mazda Protege.
  • VI The Oldsmobile Cutlass was the trademark automobile produced by General Motors. It was produced from 1961 – 1999. The cars were assembled in Michigan at the height of Motor City’s dominance in American automobile manufacturing. The Cutlass originally began as a unibody compact car, but over time it morphed into a body-on-frame vehicle. The Cutlass was a compact car from 1961-193, so just a blip on the 35+ year timeline of the iconic ride. It’s sleek exterior, performance value and availability made the Oldsmobile Cutlass a legend in its class and one of the best selling cars ever.
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  • III The BMW 3 Series is a luxury car that debuted in May 1975, and it is BMW’s best-selling model. One large reason for that is that it’s the most accessible of all the BMW’s – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t attractive Just look at it. The reason it is so high on the list is that it is such a snazzy-looking car, from a reputable brand at a fair price. It accounts for close to 30% of BMW’s annual total sales and will be on the list of best-selling cars for years and years to come.
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  • VI Another product of the 1970s, the Volkswagen Passat has been a comforting presence on used-car lots since 1973. One of Volkswagen’s first attempts at a large family car for the international market, the Passat rapidly rose in popularity even during the competitive sales days of the US gas crisis. Known by many names around the world—we’re particularly fond of the “Volkswagen Mangotan”, which sounds either like a tropical fruit or a Transformers villain—the Passat is slowly gaining in status. The Passat is set to remain one of the bestselling cars the world has ever seen.