C-160 Transall In the Air
The photography of Dietmar Schreiber/aviation-media.com
The Transall C-160 was developed in the 1960s by the German-French consortium Transportation Alliance consisting of MBB, VFW-Fokker and Aerospatiale, as a tactical transport aircraft. The type designation of the high wing aircraft consists of the application “C”, which stands for cargo; the wing area is 160 square meters.
The prototype performed its maiden flight on February 25th 1963. The first Transall operator was the French Air Force in 1967. A few month later the German Air Force took delivery of its first of 110 C-160Ds. On April, 30th 1968 the first aircraft, registered as 50+06, was delivered to the Germans. They started their career at the Transportsquadrons Luftransportgeschwader (LTG) in Wunstorf (LTG62), Hohn (LTG63) and Landsberg (LTG61).
Twenty of the German Transalls were sold to Turkey in 1971 and the number of operational aircraft in the German inventory was reduced to 60 before its successor was introduced. The replacement started in 2014, when the first Airbus A400M was delivered. The base at Wuntsorf is already closed and the remaining Transalls moved to Hohn and Landsberg. As soon as all 53 ordered Airbus A400Ms are delivered, Landsberg will be closed and the German transport capacity will concentrate at Hohn.
After more than 45 years in action, the days of the good old German Transalls are numbered. That was the main reason to set up this air to air shooting, which was performed over southern Germany.
Our special thanks goes to all contributors of LTG61 of Landsberg am Lech.
Story and photos by Dietmar Schreiber/aviation-media.com