The Douglas C-17 Globemaster III is one of the most essential military transport
aircraft developed for the United States Air Force in recent times,
and its most impressive function is its ability to carry over 170,000 tons of cargo,
including M1 Abrams Tanks, Bradley armored vehicles, or several Humvees.
However, not all strategic delivery missions have always gone as planned.
On October 24, 2018, townspeople from Cameron in North Carolina were terrified at the sight
of a vehicle rapidly falling down from the sky and heading directly to a nearby house.
A C-17 had accidentally dropped a US Army Humvee
during a routing airdrop five miles from its intended zone in Fort Bragg.
It wasn’t the first time that a C-17 had dropped vehicles or equipment
during operations and training by mistake, but as they say, practice makes perfect…
Boeing C17 Globemaster III
The C17 Globemaster III’s development can be traced back to the 1970s,
during the last days of the Vietnam War. By then, the US Air Force began looking for
a replacement for the mighty Lockheed AC-130 Hercules.
Initially developed to be a four-engine turboprop military aircraft, the Air
Force had managed to convert the AC-130 into a gunship capable of conducting airborne assault,
search and rescue, and close support operations. The Hercules excelled at this new role,
but the Air Force wished to have a transport aircraft with additional cargo capacity
to increase its strategic airlift capabilities and fulfill rapid-deployment airlift requirements.
After issuing the requirements,
the Air Force chose McDonnell Douglas to develop the new transport vehicle.
It took over a decade of financial problems to finish what would become the C17.
The aircraft took to the skies for the first time in 1991 and was baptized as Globemaster
III in 1993. However, it was not until 1995 that the first C17 Air Force Squadron
was declared operational after the aircraft finally met all the performance requirements.
The final result was a strategic cargo transport aircraft with impressive
capabilities that have lasted until this day. Despite several improvements in later variants,
the C17 has maintained its form and surpassed the test of time
as it has retained the capacity to carry bigger and heavier US armored vehicles and equipment.
Additionally, the Globemaster III has also been able to catch up with today's air
mobility requirements, including the capacity to carry heavy non-palletized outsize cargo.
This capability is thanks to the C17’s impressive size and power, with a length of 174 feet and a
wingspan of 169 feet. Also, its cargo compartment is 88 feet long, 12 feet high, and 18 feet wide.
The four Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 turbofan engines that power the aircraft
allow it to carry up to 585,000 pounds worth of cargo, including heavy vehicles such as a
69-ton M1 Abrams tank, Bradley armored vehicles, Humvees, and other trucks.
Both wheeled and palletized packages can be swiftly accommodated inside.
After McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997, the latter offered the Air Force to cut
the C17 if they decided to buy 180 aircraft instead of the 120 that were expected.
From there on, Boeing began to offer the C17 to other countries,
especially Britain, in the early 2000s. Australia, Canada, India, and other countries soon followed.
The reasoning behind the acquisition of these costly C17s was simple:
their impressive tactical and strategic airlift capabilities.
Tactical Air Drops In September of 2014, Boeing
publicly announced that it had supported more than 1,000 missions of the Strategic Airlift Capability
program's fleet of three C17 air lifters. According to the press release, the C17s
had achieved a mission-capable rate of almost 95 percent during the five years they served.
Strategic Airlift Capability, or SAC, is a multinational strategic airlift effort
that involves ten NATO countries and two countries from the alliance's Partnership for Peace program.
Established in 2008, SAC provides its 12-member nations with: (QUOTE) "Assured access to military
airlift capability by owning and operating three C-17A Globemaster III long-range cargo aircraft."
SAC is based at the Hungarian Defense Forces Papa Air Base
and consists of the 12-nation Heavy Airlift Wing and the NATO Airlift Management Programme Office.
Besides Hungary and the US, other members include Bulgaria, Estonia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia,
and the Netherlands, while the Partnership of Nations includes Finland and Sweden.
SAC uses C17s for strategic airlifts that transport equipment,
weapons, vehicles, or troops over long distances to air bases or locations not in the same region.
This allows military commands on the frontlines to bring supplies or firepower
not commonly available in the area. In the case of NATO, Eastern countries
near Russia require military supplies only on the other side of the continent.
C17s are also able to perform tactical airlifts, meaning that the Globemasters
III can also transport supplies and equipment within a specified theatre of operations.
More importantly, C17s are also equipped to perform airdrop missions,
including cargo and paratroopers.
The Globemaster III can airdrop up to 60,000 pounds in a single drop or about 10,000
pounds in a sequential drop. This also includes vehicles, such as Humvees and the Abrams tank,
with existing footage showing how the maneuver is performed from inside the aircraft.
Paratroopers can also perform free fall, or static line jumps according to their mission objectives.
The pilots communicate with the loadmaster through an interphone system to know the right time to
open the troop door. The latter then examines the door frame and looks for obstructions to prevent
the static line from entangling in the door. The static lines used by paratroopers are
attached to an anchor cable within the C17. During the jump, the static line
attached to the deployment bag remains in the aircraft and is then removed by the loadmaster.
Practice Makes Perfect
Although the Globemasters III have proved their worth with their impressive airdrop capabilities,
accidents and missteps have also occurred on the long way to master the maneuver.
Such was the case of a curious, albeit terrifying, accident that occurred on
October 24, 2018, in a North Carolina town. During a typical sunny Wednesday afternoon
in the countryside, the enormous airframe of a C17 Globemaster suddenly shadowed the town of Cameron.
The C17 made its way through the landscape on its path to its intended objective
when an indistinguishable object was accidentally dropped from its cargo bay.
The object looked small at first but quickly began to gain speed as it went
down. The townspeople gathering around could not pinpoint what the object was
until it deployed its parachute and became more visible.
It was a military Humvee! And it was making its way straight to a nearby house.
Fortunately for the owners, the Humvee suddenly made a turn and landed in a wooded area next to
the house. No animals or people were harmed. Footage taken that day shows how the canopy
was disturbed from the airdrop, and another detailed view shows the extended parachute.
Marvin Krause from Joint Base Charleston told the media that
the package was accidentally dropped by a C17 Globemaster from the 437th Airlift Wing.
He said: (QUOTE) "The C-17 took off from Pope Army Airfield, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on a routine
air drop test training mission and inadvertently dropped a US Army Humvee vehicle prematurely
over Cameron, North Carolina, approximately five miles from the Fort Bragg drop zone."
However, it was not the first time that the C17 had been put on the spot by media outlets.
In 2006, another C17 rose to fame after a video showed it dropping a full-scale simulated
AirLaunch QuickReach rocket weighing some 72,000 pounds as part of the joint DARPA and Air Force
Falcon Small Launch Vehicle SLV Program. The program's objective was to find a
less expensive and flexible method of launching a 1,000-pound payload
into low earth orbit, such as satellites. The test was planned by the 412th Test Wing,
DARPA, and Airlaunch LLC, and the team set a record for the largest
single object to be dropped by a Globemaster III. Footage from that day shows how the 65-foot long
rocket is loaded into the C17 and then dropped through the aircraft’s hangar with a parachute.
A special system of rollers had to be developed to guide the rocket out of the hangar,
and this unique feat has helped increase the capabilities of the Globemaster III
for advanced airdrops and weapon systems testing.
Thank you for watching our video! Please like and subscribe to our Dark Documentaries
channels to find more exciting historical content. And let us know in the comments
below what you think of the impressive capabilities of the Globemaster III.