Video: The wild story behind America’s rocket-powered C-130s

What makes the U.S. military the best in the world is its ability to innovate and think outside the box. American ingenuity has long given the country’s military an advantage over adversaries.

One of the best examples of this ingenuity took place in 1980, during the desperate attempt to rescue 52 American hostages held in Iran, when the U.S. Air Force put rockets on a C-130 Hercules tactical transport aircraft.

After Operation Eagle Claw – the special operations mission to free a group of 53 American hostages held inside Iran – went awry and eight American troops died, the U.S. military started looking for outside-the-box solutions to resolve the ongoing crisis.

The Pentagon was determined to try again. And one idea arrived in the form of a rocket-propelled C-130 Hercules.

“This seemingly insane concept went from concept to reality in just over three weeks and had the real potential to work, had the crisis not ended first by other means. Let’s talk about Operation Credible Sport, and how the lineage of this insane concept lives on in today’s combat aircraft,” Alex Hollings, Editor-in-Chief of Sandboxx News and host of AirPower on YouTube, said in a recent episode.

If you are looking to learn more about how the Air Force managed to put rockets on its huge C-130 Hercules aircraft, make sure to watch Alex’s video above.