Note: This aircraft is from the only ski-equipped C-130 unit in the world. The unit supports very few air shows, so this may be the only opportunity to see this rare aircraft!!

The 109th Airlift Wing's unofficial motto is "From Pole to Pole." Even more unofficially, it's "You call; we haul." The Wing's members make good on both, providing both "routine" transport (to the extent any polar flying can be "routine") and performing such extraordinary missions as the rescue of sick personnel from Scott Base in Antarctica, in temperatures barely above those at which their fuel and hydraulic fluid would gel.

The 109th Airlift Wing is a New York Air National Guard unit from Scotia, NY. They fly the USAF's only ski-equipped C-130s, capable of operating off polar snows and ice as well as from conventional and unimproved runways. The 109th's missions include support of scientific research on the Greenland icecap and in Antarctica and Aeromedical Evacuation from front-line combat zones and remote emergencies, worldwide.

Photo of the United States Air Force
Iinformation courtesy of the New York Air National Guard