Recently posted by the National Museum of the US Air Force on its Facebook Page, the photos in this article feature the Museum’s Boeing C-17 Globemaster III that includes signatures from Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert John Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, a backwards signature from Terrence Howard, and more.
According to the National Museum of the US Air Force website, the Globemaster III on display is the prototype C-17. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Co., which is now Boeing, it was designated T-1 (S/N 87-0025). T-1 made its first flight on Sep. 15, 1991, when it was delivered to the USAF at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for testing. After completing the extensive C-17 flight test program, T-1 supported many other flight and propulsion test programs for the USAF, NASA and others.
T-1 also appeared in a number of major motion pictures, including “Transformers” (2007), “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (2009), “Iron Man” (2008) and “Iron Man 2” (2010) and more.
After 20 years of wide-ranging flight tests, T-1 had reached the end of its flying career, and it was retired at Edwards AFB in 2011. T-1 was flown to the museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, six miles (9.7 km) northeast of Dayton, Ohio, to begin its new career in April 2012.
Entering service in 1993, the C-17 Globemaster III is the US Air Force’s newest, most versatile cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force.
The C-17 is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to small, austere airfields. It can also perform tactical airlift and airdrop missions or transport litters and ambulatory patients during aeromedical evacuations.
A crew of three (pilot, copilot and loadmaster) operates the C-17, which can carry about 170,000 pounds of cargo. The large aft door will accommodate almost all of the US Army’s air-transportable vehicles and palletized cargo, including the Army’s M-1 Abrams main battle tank.
The C-17 can take off and land on runways as short as 3,500 feet and only 90 feet wide. Its four Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 engines can reverse their thrust to help slow it down on landings.
The thrust reversers direct the engine exhaust upward and forward to prevent dust and debris from being sucked into the engine intakes. These reversible engines also allow the pilot to back the plane or even turn it around on a narrow runway using a three-point star turn method.
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
Military Aviation
