The Romanian Air Forces recently inaugurated their largest aircraft maintenance hangar, which will be used for the maintenance of the C-130 Hercules aircraft. The C-130 Hercules, produced by Lockheed, is the largest aircraft owned by the Air Forces, which runs four such military planes.

The hangar, located in Otopeni near Bucharest, needed investments of some EUR 4 million, most of which came from the Dambovita County Council, in exchange for a land plot received from the Ministry of Defence. The hangar is located within the 546 military unit in Otopeni, and construction work started in 2009.

The investment in the Otopeni hangar covered for a plot and several buildings taken over by the Dambovita Council from the Defence Ministry in 2006 in the area Titu – Boteni, where Renault group has built the Titu Technical Centre.

The land exchange between the county council and the Ministry of Defence back in 2006 led to a EUR 166 million investment by Renault group, which took the land plot under concession. The Dambovita County Council cashes in a royalty of EUR 130,000 a year for this plot, and an additional EUR 930,000 in local taxes paid by Renault.

The C-130 Hercules is one of the only military aircraft to remain in continuous production for over 50 years. The plane, which is 29 meters long, 11 meters tall and with a 40 meters wingspan, has 34 tonnes when empty, and 70 tonnes when taking off with a normal load. It can fly 92 equipped troops or 64 to 84 parachute jumpers, and reaches a maximum speed of 616 kilometres per hour.

By comparison, a passenger aircraft such as Boeing 747, an aircraft used by Romanian state airline Tarom, has a length of 28 meters, a wingspan of 28 meters, and a height of 11 meters. It has 28 tonnes when empty, and can take off with a weight of 58 tonnes. Its maximum speed is of 876 kilometres per hour.

editor@romania-insider.com