WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. -- The Air Force's largest aircraft, better known as C-5 Galaxies, have been streaking the skies over western Massachusetts since the late 1980s.
The mission of these flying behemoths is transportation of outsized cargo all over the world. The Westover Air Reserve Base aircraft are specifically tasked with an airlift mission of delivering supplies to wherever they need to go.
Recently, some of the C-5s have been having mechanical issues with their nose-landing gear. In July 2017, the nose gear problem led leadership at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to issue a stand-down of their assigned C-5s. This grounding evolved into a fleet-wide issue while maintenance crews made the necessary repairs to the nose gear ball screw assemblies.
Westover's 439th Maintenance Squadron aero repair shop is responsible for the repair of the five aircraft assigned to the base and one additional aircraft that is finishing the M-model modification process at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York.
As of late August, the C-5s assigned to Westover ARB were repaired and operational.
For more in-depth insight to the repair of the nose-gear from one of our maintainers check out our feature article: Westover ARB maintainer explains detailed repair to C-5 nose-gear