Welcome back to Daily Aviation for a feature on one of the busiest strategic military airlift aircraft designed to operate from virtually anywhere, exceeding 4 million total flight hours in 2021.
As a loadmaster for 20 years, I have had the privilege of flying these wonderful planes. You’ve been to some great places around the world and some places where you wouldn’t send your worst enemy (yes, yes, you probably would). Some of the loads we used to carry might surprise most people.
I love watching the C-17 Cargo plane and it’s a great looking plane and can fly long distances without needing to refuel, and the F-15 Strike Eagle is also a great fighter and is still the BOSS when it comes to air dominance.
I’ve flown the C-130, C-141, C-5 and the C-17 is by far the most capable and comfortable. On my way back from my last deployment I landed at Bagram AB and was lucky enough to speak to a C-17 flight crew member who said there was a flight to Ramstein AB where I was in two hours and I took the flight and a medivac had been set up and I slept on a set up stretcher most of the way back, it was by far the best.