Photo of the day From the Stripes archives

September 17, 2004

Red Grandy ©Stars and Stripes

Heidelberg, Germany, June 8, 1977: Water from the edge of the Heidelberg Army Airfield runway is drawn in a vortex into the engine intake of a YC-14 AMST (Advanced Medium Short Takeoff and Landing Transport) during the demonstration of a prototype of a plane that was being considered as a possible successor to the C-130 Hercules. Despite the dramatic suction effect being recorded here by photographers, pilots said the intake had never picked up solid materials such as stones. Neither Boeing's YC-14 nor McDonnell Douglas' competing YC-15 ever went into full production, mainly because of rising costs and questions about cost-effectiveness.