The plane has played a pivotal role in many key military campaigns

The transporter plane has played a pivotal role in most key military and relief campaigns of modern times.

It can land on a range of surfaces, including snow, ice, sand, fields, roads and even aircraft carriers.

The first test plane made its maiden flight in Burbank, California, on 23 August 1954.The RAF's fleet has been based at Lyneham since the 1970s.

Multiple tasks

Its work has included transporting troops, fuel, ammunition and humanitarian relief.

In the 1980s, two Hercules aircraft worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week, to deliver thousands of tons of food and medical supplies to Ethiopia - many crews volunteered for the job.

During the first Gulf War, the Hercules was the only aircraft that could land on desert strips.

Troops were taken to the front line of the Kuwait invasion and at the end of Desert Storm were taken home at the rate of 1,000 a day.

Tragedy struck the fleet in 1993, when nine crew members from Lyneham were killed after their Hercules crashed after stalling on a low-level flying exercise in Scotland.