The Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft, as well as an upgraded variant of the standard C-5 Galaxy.
Fictional History[]
The Two Lost Mountains[]
Some time before Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster overthrew the Four Legendary Kingdoms completed the Trial of the Cities, Jaeger Eins of the Knights of the Golden Eight began requisitioning 10 Super Galaxys from the U.S. Air Force, as they would be the only aircraft large enough to accommodate the weight and number of Bronze Guardians they expected to have under their control. After Sphinx acquired the Rings of Command for completing the trial, Eins and Dion DeSaxe began overseeing the transportation of the bronzemen and silvermen away from their respective bases at Atlas, Ra, Thule and the Underworld in the Super Galaxys.
Several of the Super Galaxys belonging to Sphinx's Entourage were equipped with ADS-IRM (Advanced Delivery System for Impact Resistant Material) containers, which allowed the large aircraft to deploy the automatons from high altitude and maintain distance from the ADS's touchdown point, as was presumably the case when Sphinx and his forces sent the bronzemen in ADSs to invade Moscow's Novodevichy Convent.
As Jack's team fled Moscow in the Black Raven, Rufus reported to Jack West Jr that three Super Galaxys had taken off behind them, which Jack determined wee carrying Sphinx's bronzemen.
When he was sent to invade the team's base at his late brother's estate in Alsace-Lorraine, Yago DeSaxe and a few Golden Knights landed their Super Galaxy at a nearby airfield before moving in. After capturing Easton, Yago brought him back to the plane and took off, though not long after, Sphinx ordered Yago to be rid of the minotaur. Yago prepared to have Easton thrown from the plane when it was suddenly remotely hacked by Alby Calvin (using a method given to him by Aloysius Knight and Rufus) and the rear cargo-bay door opened mid-flight, allowing Jack and Nobody to fly their ICON A10 seaplane right into the Super Galaxy's hold.
After Easton took advantage of the chaos to take Yago's Ring of Command to order the Super Galaxy's load of bronzemen to freeze, Jack sent Nobody and Iolanthe Compton-Jones to deal with the plane's flight crew. After having Yago thrown off of the plane, Jack's team took control of the Super Galaxy and started heading to the second iron mountain, sending the detained pilots out (with parachutes, unlike Yago). As they neared Aiguille du Midi, Jack had the bronzemen move the damaged seaplane - with him, Easton and four "palemen" - out of the hold, and Nobody and Iolanthe parachuted down to the mountain's observatory. Once they were gone, Alby remotely re-directed the Super Galaxy, with its cargo of bronze guardians and the lone Bertie de Montreuil, to land at an airfield outside Dijon.
Afterwards, when Jack's team reunited at Dijon, they worked out of the Super Galaxy while determining their next move in locating the two lost mountains. After the rest of the team headed out on their respective missions, Jack, Easton and Pooh Bear used the Super Galaxy to fly to Jerusalem, and once over the Israeli city, Jack used his gull wings to paraglide down to the Temple Mount, while the Super Galaxy was presumably flown by Sky Monster to the nearest airfield.
Next, the team used the Super Galaxy to travel from Jerusalem to Cairo International Airport, with most of the team remained on the large aircraft while the Wests, Pooh Bear and Stretch headed to the final iron mountain. Once they'd returned, with Lynda Fadel having determined the location of the Supreme Labyrinth in the Sinai Desert, Jack and the team began preparing an assault to get them past Sphinx's defences, and soon most of them set off in the Super Galaxy, with Knight flying a C-130 Hercules right behind them.
As they neared the Labyrinth, the team began the "Russian Doll" plan, and Knight flew the Hercules ahead of the Super Galaxy, touching down to begin barreling through the battalion of bronzemen at the far left gate. Sky Monster then followed in behind with the Super Galaxy along the path Knight had started clearing to continue the job, until the automatons began to jam the Super Galaxy's wheels. Once that had happened and the Super Galaxy ground to a halt, Jack, Zoe and Lily drove out from the plane's forward hold door in a troop truck to continue the run to the Labyrinth's gate.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
Following the end of the battle outside the Labyrinth, more Super Galaxies were brought in by Sphinx's forces to collect and transport the remaining bronzemen away from the area, taking them to a staging ground on the coast of the Red Sea near Red Horizon Star-4.
Once the enemy was gone, Sky Monster emerged from his hiding place in the Super Galaxy he had flown in and reunited with Rufus.
Attributes[]
At 250 feet long and with a wingspan of 222 feet, the C-5M Super Galaxy is an upgraded version of the C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft, which are fitted with new engines (newer GE CF6 engines) and modernized avionics with the expectation that they can maintain a longer service life than their predecessor. The nose contains a hinge-assembly to allow it to open as a forward cargo-bay door - typically only used on the ground - and it and the aft cargo-bay doors allow access to load/unload the cargo hold.
Like the C-5s, the Super Galaxys' cargo holds can be modified in various ways to accommodate their payloads, which can include troops and cargo weighing up to 281,000 lb. (127,459 kg). This also enables them to accommodate large vehicles such as five double-decker buses, compacted (rotor-stored) helicopters like six Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters or a single Chinook, and even the fuselage of an entire C-130 Hercules.
Trivia[]
- The Super Galaxy's predecessor, the C-5 Galaxy, had a complicated development history, including significant cost overruns. Shortly after entering service, cracks in the wings of many aircraft were discovered and the C-5 fleet was restricted in capability until corrective work was completed. Following the beginning of the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) in 2006, with these upgraded versions being designated the Super Galaxy.