pplpod

About pplpod

pplpod is a podcast about people, places and lots of other stuff. Each episode takes a deep dive into the lives, choices, and legacies of fascinating figures from history, culture, music, and beyond. From icons who shaped entire generations to hidden stories that deserve the spotlight, pplpod brings you closer to the people behind the headlines and the legends. Thoughtful, engaging, and story-driven, pplpod explores what makes these lives extraordinary—and what we can learn from them today.

Publisher

pplpod

Category

history · music

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Aug 2025

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

15,143 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   C-17 Globemaster III: The Moose, 823 Kabul Evacuees and a Tampa Mix-Up

   Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/pplpod/voicemail) Crews call the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III the Moose because its pressure relief vents groan during refueling. The Air Force wanted a replacement for the aging C-141 Starlifter that could fly oceans like a strategic transport and land on short dirt strips like a tactical one, and McDonnell Douglas won in 1981 with a design descended from the YC-15. The program nearly died: in 1990 Dick Cheney cut the order from 210 to 120, the prototype was overweight and buggy, and in October 1992 a static test wing failed at 128 percent of its design limit load instead of 150 percent. In late 1993 the Pentagon gave the company two years to fix things or stop at 40 planes, and it absorbed a loss of nearly $1.5 billion. Engineers later found the test jacks had loaded the wing incorrectly. The C-17 entered service in 1995, won the Collier Trophy, flew half of the strategic airlift missions over Kosovo and carries the presidential limousine ahead of Air Force One. On one August 2021 flight out of Kabul it carried a record 823 people. In 2024 an Indian Air Force C-17 flew 2,600 kilometers to drop MARCOS commandos and boats beside the hijacked MV Ruen, rescuing 17 sailors and capturing 35 pirates. Boeing closed the Long Beach line in 2015 after 279 aircraft, and as of June 2025 restarting it was under discussion. Four Pratt & Whitney F117 engines from the Boeing 757 family each make over 40,000 pounds of thrust, and upward-venting thrust reversers let the jet back up. Its cargo floor flips from rollers to a flat surface for a 69-ton M1 Abrams, and it can seat 102 paratroopers. Since 1999 C-17s have flown five-hour Operation Deep Freeze runs from New Zealand to McMurdo Station, past a point of safe return. The RAF used a C-17 to carry Queen Elizabeth II's coffin from Edinburgh to London in 2022. A 2010 crash at Elmendorf killed four crew, the only fatal hull loss, and a fatigued crew in 2012 landed at tiny Peter O. Knight Airport instead of MacDill.

2. 

   21 Oct 2026

   C-130 Hercules: A Hookless Carrier Landing, Entebbe and the Fulton Yoke

   Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/pplpod/voicemail) In late October 1963, Lieutenant James H. Flatley III landed a four-engine Lockheed C-130 Hercules on the carrier USS Forrestal with no arresting hook, completing 29 touch-and-goes and 21 full-stop landings and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. The C-130 came from a 1951 requirement after the Korean War exposed the limits of piston transports like the C-47 and C-119: carry 92 passengers or 64 paratroopers, operate from rough strips and load through a hinged rear ramp. Kelly Johnson reportedly told designer Willis Hawkins that signing the proposal would destroy Lockheed, yet he flew the chase plane when Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer took the first YC-130 aloft from Burbank on August 23, 1954. Four Allison T56 turboprops gave it power with a 1,100-nautical-mile range, and automatic feathering kept a dead engine from windmilling. Ski-equipped versions supplied DEW Line radar sites on the Greenland ice cap and Antarctica. In Vietnam C-130s rolled 10,000-pound daisy cutter bombs out the ramp, and in 1969 a CIA C-130 with a crew from Taiwan flew six and a half hours at night to drop sensors at a Chinese nuclear test site. In the 1976 Entebbe raid, Israel flew four C-130s about 2,200 miles at roughly 100 feet, carrying a black Mercedes to fool airport guards. Operation Commando Scarf dropped chemicals on the Ho Chi Minh Trail to turn monsoon rain into impassable mud. Variants include the AC-130 gunship and the EC-130 Commando Solo flying radio and TV station. HC-130s used the Fulton system, snagging a balloon line with a nose yoke to yank a person off the ground. The 910th Airlift Wing sprayed dispersants over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As of 2024 the C-130 had 70 years of continuous production, with over 2,700 built for more than 60 nations, and a 2021 Rapid Dragon test dropped cruise missiles on a parachuted pallet.

3. 

   21 Oct 2026

   A-10 Warthog: The Titanium Bathtub, Kim Campbell and the Retirement Fight

   Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/pplpod/voicemail) The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II grew out of Vietnam, where the U.S. lost about 266 propeller-driven A-1 Skyraiders, mostly to small arms fire, while the Mach 2 F-4 Phantom was too fast and costly for close air support. Worried that Army attack helicopters such as the AH-1 Cobra and AH-56 Cheyenne would take the mission and its funding, the Air Force launched the A-X program in 1966. The 1970 requirements called for a 460 mph top speed, a 16,000-pound payload, 4,000-foot dirt runways and a design built around a 30mm rotary cannon. In 1973 Fairchild Republic's YA-10 beat Northrop's YA-9. Fighter pilots initially resisted the slow, radar-less jet, but in the 1991 Gulf War 132 A-10s posted a 95.7 percent mission-capable rate hunting Scud launchers, and Captain Robert Swain shot down an Iraqi helicopter with the gun. Over Baghdad in 2003, Captain Kim Campbell lost all hydraulics and an engine to flak, then flew home for nearly an hour in manual reversion and landed. The record also includes, from 2010 to 2015, involvement in incidents that killed 35 Afghan civilians and 10 U.S. troops in friendly fire. Wing cracks led to Boeing's $1.2 billion wing replacement program, and Congress has repeatedly blocked Air Force efforts to retire the fleet. The GAU-8 Avenger is roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, and the nose gear is offset so the firing barrel sits on the centerline. A 1,200-pound titanium tub, half an inch to an inch and a half thick, protects the pilot and flight controls from 23mm fire. Engines mounted high near the tail avoid ingesting debris, and the tail planes shield their heat from ground-based missiles. The A-10C upgrade added glass cockpits, HOTAS controls combining an F-16 stick and F-15 throttle, targeting pods and JDAMs. Twelve A-10s deployed in the 2026 Iran War, and new wings could keep the fleet flying to 2035 or even 2040.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

1.3 / 5

13 ratings

Spotify

2.0 / 5

49 ratings

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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