The Air Force’s newest cargo jet has a home in the Lowcountry.
Charleston Air Force Base took delivery Monday of the first C-17 Globemaster III to enter the Air Force’s inventory, according to the Air Force. The base’s active-duty 437th Airlift Wing and the Air Force Reserve’s 315th Airlift Wing received the airplane, the service said.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak sat in the pilot’s position on the delivery flight and checked the cockpit instruments before the jet landed at Charleston, according to Defense Department photo records from the day. After the arrival, McPeak and Gen. Ronald Fogleman, commander of Air Mobility Command, walked a red carpet between honor guards, the records show.
The airplane carries the name The Spirit of Charleston on its fuselage.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. builds the four-engine C-17 at its plant in Long Beach, Calif. The jet made its first flight Sept. 15, 1991, according to the Air Force, which has programmed the purchase of 120 of them.
The C-17 is built to carry outsize cargo, including one of the Army’s tanks, and to land with a full load on runways as short as 3,000 feet, according to the Air Force. Its crew is a pilot, a co-pilot and a loadmaster.
The Air Force calls the C-17 the heir to the airlift legacy of the C-141 Starlifter, one of the jets the 437th Airlift Wing has flown from Charleston.
The jet that arrived Monday, known as P-6, is the first C-17 to enter operational service with the Air Force, according to the Air Force, and the 437th is the first operational Air Force wing to receive one.
