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Part 3: Fly with 920th Rescue Wing on a HC-130 Hercules aircraft at Cocoa Beach airshow

949 views · Published 7 November 2011 · 13:13 · Indexed 30 September 2026

Channel: Matthew Travis · 2011 · Science & Technology

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Media had the opportunity to fly aboard a HC-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft, aka King.

The view of Cocoa Beach from the back ramp Of the HC-130 King is phenomenal! We photographed the pilots and crew as well as the Guardian Angel Airmen skydiving out the back into the Ocean - these pararescumen and combat rescue operators are the only DoD members specifically organized, trained and equipped to conduct personnel recovery operations in hostile or denied areas as a primary mission, which means they're they guys who the Navy Seals call. For the past 50 years our unit was tasked as the primary rescue force serving as guardians of the astronauts. Currently our aircraft and Airmen are deployed to Afghanistan performing combat search and rescue.

Air crews from the 920th Rescue Wing were supposed to fly HC-130P/N extended-range, fixed-wing aircraft, or King, show center at 3,500 feet, while Air Force Reserve Guardian Angel Airmen will perform a free-fall parachute jump from the aircraft's back ramp into the drop zone drink that is the Atlantic Ocean. This is how pararescuemen get to some of the world's most-impossible spots in the world to save lives. Due to mechanical problems, we instead flew on a backup HC-130 retired hurricane hunter aircraft. Same basic plane.

Local pilots from the 920th Rescue Wing then swept in with their HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter, or Jolly (highly modified Black Hawks) to showcase additional rescue insertion and extraction methods for recovering survivors or astronauts.

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