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About the C-17
Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Co., now Boeing Co.
Details: Crew of three (pilot, co-pilot and loadmaster), maximum carrying capacity 170,900 pounds of cargo; maximum speed 518 mph.
Customers: Used by the U.S. Air Force worldwide, plus allies including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Qatar.
Cost per plane: $202.3 million.
Source: Air Force.
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — A hand-built prototype of the C-17, the transport plane widely used to move troops, cargo and injured soldiers around the world, flew into retirement Wednesday at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
The C-17 Globemaster III prototype spent its career as a test plane at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and was featured in six movies. Its pilot, Air Force Maj. Eric Bippert, circled Wright-Patterson Air Force Base twice in the plane’s final journey before landing on the Air Force museum’s runway Wednesday morning as a crowd of invited guests watched.
The museum staff will spend four to six weeks preparing the C-17 for public exhibit. It is to go on display by mid-June with other aircraft in the Air Park located on the museum grounds just outside the buildings, spokeswoman Sarah Swan said.
Since this plane’s initial Sept. 15, 1991, flight, the C-17 has become the Air Force’s workhorse airlifter in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations worldwide. The Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve are flying a total of 215 C-17s today.
It is frequently used to move injured troops from battlefields to hospitals.
“The C-17 saves life and limb ... by bringing back our wounded,” said Col. Andrew D. Ingram, director of the C-17 system program in the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson. “There’s no more important mission than that.”
The museum plans to use the C-17 to illustrate for visitors the mission of airlift and airdrop planes, said museum director Jack Hudson, a retired Air Force lieutenant general.
The newly retired plane is known as T-1, denoting its status as a prototype built expressly for test and evaluation.
It still looks like a prototype internally, with orange bundles of wiring, no permanent bathroom (a portable latrine is brought on board) and switches that were relocated in later production models of the plane, Bippert said.
T-1 also had a Hollywood career, appearing in the “Transformers,” “Iron man,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and “Iron Man 2” movies. It is also to appear in the Warner Bros. release “Superman: Man of Steel” film due out in 2013, museum officials said.
Museum officials hope the plane, and others around it, will inspire young visitors to consider careers in aviation, engineering or technology fields.
Bippert, who has flown C-17s for a decade in active duty and as an instructor and test pilot, said he plans to return to see T-1 in its new display role. He has piloted T-1 for several years and will miss it, he said.
“It’s a sad day,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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