Air-Attack.com :: C-17 Globemaster III Factsheet
C-17 Globemaster III
The U.S. Air Force/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is designed to fulfill airlift needs well into the next century - carrying large combat equipment and troops or humanitarian aid across international distances directly to small austere airfields anywhere in the world
The C-17 is operated by a cockpit crew of two and one loadmaster. This cost-effective flight crew complement is made possible through the use of an advanced digital avionics system using four cathode-ray tube displays, two full-capability HUDS (Head-Up Displays) and advanced cargo systems.
The C-17 can carry virtually all of the Army's air-transportable equipment.
The design of the cargo compartment allows the C-17 to carry a wide range of vehicles, palleted cargo, para-troops, airdrop loads and aeromedical evacuees. The cargo compartment has a sufficiently large cross section to transport large wheeled and tracked vehicles efficiently, including trucks, tanks, helicopters such as the AH-1G Cobra, artillery and weapons such as the Patriot Missile System. The C-17 is capable of carrying out an airdrop of outsize firepower such as the Sheridan tank or the Bradley fighting vehicle if the Bradley is refitted to be airdrop capable. Three Bradley armoured vehicles comprise one deployment load on the C-17. The US Army M-1 main battle tank can be carried with other vehicles.
The design of the aircraft lets it operate through small, austere airfields. The C-17 can take off and land on runways as short as 3,000 feet (914 meters) and as narrow as 90 feet (27.4 meters) wide. Even on such narrow runways, the C-17 can turn around using a three-point star turn and its backing capability.
The C-17 has performance characteristics that distinguish it from its predecessors, including long-range capability, outstanding aerodynamic efficiency, ease of ground operations, heavy cargo payload capability, and ability to perform extensive airdrops over hostile territory and make precision landings and takeoffs from short or makeshift runways.
"The C-17 is the right airplane at the right time," said Norbert Smith, a McDonnell Douglas senior manager. "It's an airlifter that our deployed forces will get much use from, as demonstrated at Tuzla Airfield in Bosnia. It has today's technologies and will take the Air Force into new concepts in operations and deployments well into the future.
"With the C-17," Smith said, "both the Air Force and McDonnell Douglas have benefited significantly from the contributions of NASA?s innovative technology applications."
NASA
Like other military transports, the C-17 uses a "supercritical" wing. These are advanced airfoil designs that enhance the range, cruising speed and fuel efficiency of jet aircraft by producing weaker shock waves that create less drag and permit high efficiency. This major innovative technology was conceived through NASA Langley wind tunnel research in the 1960s. The agency researched the idea in actual flight in an F-8A at NASA Dryden and later on an F-111 aircraft.
In the mid-1970s, NASA Langley developed the winglet concept through wind tunnel research. Winglets are small, winglike vertical surfaces at each wing-tip of an aircraft that enable the airplane to fly with greater efficiency. They curve flow at the wingtip to produce a forward force on the airplane, similar to the sail on a sail boat. The concept was first demonstrated in-flight on a corporate Gates Model 28 Longhorn series Learjet, and further tested on a large DC-10 aircraft as part of the NASA Aircraft Energy Efficiency (ACEE) Program. Winglets were installed on a KC-135A tanker on loan from the Air Force and flight tested at NASA Dryden in 1979 and 1980. Eventually, winglets were applied to the C-17.
Boeing
The Defense Department launched its Cargo-Experimental (C-X) program in 1979, and the Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas as the manufacturer of the envisioned C-17 in 1981.
Boeing is on contract with the Air Force to build and deliver 120 C-17s through 2004. At the end of 2001, Boeing had delivered 80 C-17s to the USAF. The United Kingdom Royal Air Force operates four C-17s.
During normal testing, C-17s set 22 world records, including payload to altitude, time-to-climb, and short takeoff and landing mark, in which the C-17 took off in less than 1,400 feet, carried a payload of 44,000 pounds to altitude, and landed in less than 1,400 feet. The aircraft has additional records pending, which will bring the total to 33. These were set during flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in 2001.
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