Military Plane ID? Solved. C 17 Globemaster III

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I know nothing about planes. Can someone ID this plane by the profile? I see them circling my house daily, just want to know a little more about them. Pretty cool seeing them banking around my neighborhood.
I'm outside right now, and they must be doing night training, because one has done 3 laps now.
I'm assuming it's military because on the flight tracker sites, I cannot find any aircraft in the area when I see them real time.
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C-17 Globemaster III

Edit- Tnkrclwn beat me to it.

My brother tail surfed one. Big, nimble, powerful, and can open thrust reversers in flight for tactical descents.
 
I know nothing about planes. Can someone ID this plane by the profile? I see them circling my house daily, just want to know a little more about them. Pretty cool seeing them banking around my neighborhood.
I'm outside right now, and they must be doing night training, because one has done 3 laps now.
I'm assuming it's military because on the flight tracker sites, I cannot find any aircraft in the area when I see them real time.
 

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Thanks. I appreciate it. I made it about 10 planes into the list of current active military planes before I gave up and decided to ask you guys.

If it’s big and grey:

Really big. Four engines. High wing. No winglets. T-tail. C-5 Galaxy

Big but not as big. Four engines. High wing. Winglets. T-tail. C-17 Globemaster III

Not that big. Four engines. Props. High wing. No t-tail. C-130 Hercules.

Low wing. Four engines. Boom. KC-135 Stratotanker (won’t be seeing anymore as they are being retired).

Big. Low wing. Two engines. Boom. KC-46 Pegasus.

Big. Three engines (each wing and top/tail). Boom. KC-10 Extender.
 
Thanks. I appreciate it. I made it about 10 planes into the list of current active military planes before I gave up and decided to ask you guys.

There’s some great youtube vids of their short take off and landing capabilities. Max climb is fun as well. When my brother was in the C-17 SPO, he described it as the Corvette of the heavy lifters.


View: https://youtu.be/17gLoWDX_ig
 
These are the same ones in and out of Pease daily right?
I never see anything else most of the year except those
 
Military.com says there are some down at Joint Base Charleston which is about 200 miles from me. Wikipedia is saying cruising speed is 520 MPH. So like a 20 minute flight from here.
Reading the specs, these things are massive and carry some serious weight.
The weight capacity is one person's mom
 
Westover always puts on a great air show. Unfortunately they don’t have one this summer (Barnes doesn’t either) but Pease is having one 11-12 September.

As for local C-17 traffic, they come up from Stewart in NY and Dover in Delaware quite a bit.
 
Fun fact, the C17 can actually move backwards on the ground with it's thrust reversers...

I had some friend at McDonnell Douglas back when it was being developed, it's a pretty amazing bird...
 
I showed up at Ft Bragg just as they were certifying these for airborne ops, and it took them awhile to figure out just how long the static lines needed to be at the C17's velocity. Hardest exit I ever had was jumping out of a C17 with a static line sized for a C141.

Those Globemasters are night-and-day from a 141 or a C130, as far as troop comfort and overall space inside. It's a different world.
 
I showed up at Ft Bragg just as they were certifying these for airborne ops, and it took them awhile to figure out just how long the static lines needed to be at the C17's velocity. Hardest exit I ever had was jumping out of a C17 with a static line sized for a C141.

Those Globemasters are night-and-day from a 141 or a C130, as far as troop comfort and overall space inside. It's a different world.
After all the testing, they came onboard in the late 90s and used white 20' static lines. Eventually folks got smarter and kept all the D Bags with 15' static lines and then simply added a 5' extension for C-17s.

They're good aircraft to pull duties on too. Less stress on jumpers while loading and room to check jumpers without walking on them is a great thing. Except for the one time I was PJing and had snowshoes under the top flap of my MOLLE. Part of the check for the C-17 is to trace halfway accross the bottom edge of the door. Well with all that extra bulk in my ruck, I ended up with both feet off the floor, balanced on my ruck, my head hanging out the aircraft, and still could barely touch the bottom edge. We only had 46 seconds to f*** around in the door prior to the DZ on Malemute, so eventually it is like close enough, did the rest of my shit, and put jumpers in the door.

PS-watching a bunch of folks in poorly fitted white VB boots weeble wobble their way out the door was comical.
 
After all the testing, they came onboard in the late 90s and used white 20' static lines. Eventually folks got smarter and kept all the D Bags with 15' static lines and then simply added a 5' extension for C-17s.

They're good aircraft to pull duties on too. Less stress on jumpers while loading and room to check jumpers without walking on them is a great thing. Except for the one time I was PJing and had snowshoes under the top flap of my MOLLE. Part of the check for the C-17 is to trace halfway accross the bottom edge of the door. Well with all that extra bulk in my ruck, I ended up with both feet off the floor, balanced on my ruck, my head hanging out the aircraft, and still could barely touch the bottom edge. We only had 46 seconds to f*** around in the door prior to the DZ on Malemute, so eventually it is like close enough, did the rest of my shit, and put jumpers in the door.

PS-watching a bunch of folks in poorly fitted white VB boots weeble wobble their way out the door was comical.

82d: "All JMs must be CERTAIN to perform all aircraft checks thoroughly. Safety first!"

JM: "Good enough. Standby!"
 
Down in Charleston for the weekend. Just saw one landing. It looked like it was just hovering over the tree line for the longest time.

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