The C-17 Globemaster III only requires three crew members: a pilot, co-pilot, and loadmaster. It can transport up to 170,900 pounds of cargo — more than twice the capacity of the C-141B — and fly at 450 knots, or about 517 miles per hour. It can also operate on runways as short as 3,500 feet.
The C-17 entered service in 1993 and continues to support the Air Force’s combat operations and humanitarian missions, picking up where the C-141 Starlifters left off as the US military’s primary long-haul transport aircraft. Boeing has a $2.5 billion contract to sustain the Air Force’s C-17s, and there continues to be interest in building new Globemasters even though Boeing closed the production line over a decade ago.
“In every conflict, every disaster, every contingency anywhere on the globe, Starlifter crews have been the first responders,” June Shrewsbury, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of Strategic Airlift, said at a C-141 retirement ceremony held in 2004. “The C-141 has quite a record of achievement.”
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