Dover Air Force Base airmen spent part of Oct. 8 figuratively kicking the tires on the newest member of the base’s airlift fleet, a C-17 Globemaster III christened “The Spirit of Delaware.”

    The 174-foot-long cargo aircraft, the 13th and last of the base’s complement of C-17s, touched down at 3:58 p.m., two minutes ahead of schedule, on its maiden flight from the Boeing assembly plant in Long Beach, Calif. Gen. Arthur J. Lichte, commander of the Air Mobility Command, Dover’s major command, was at the controls.

    Numerous dignitaries, including Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., Lt. Gov. John Carney, 436th Airlift Wing commander Col. Stephen B. Harrison and U.S. Air Force Reserve 512th Airlift Wing commander Col. Randal L. Bright, were on hand to greet Lichte and the new C-17.

    “I can’t wait to put her to work,” said Tech. Sgt. Glenn Bull, eying the pristine aircraft. A member of the 736th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Bull is the plane’s dedicated crew chief, in charge of a group of airmen who will maintain and repair the new Globemaster. He had been at the Boeing plant only the week before, conducted an acceptance inspection on the plane.

    “I’m definitely proud about it,” Bull added. “It will make the total fleet for Dover.”

Smaller but more versatile than a C-5

    A crowd of at least 250 had gathered on bleachers outside the base’s Air Mobility Command Museum anticipating the Globemaster’s arrival, and Lichte did not disappoint. Appearing out of an overcast western sky, the general brought the C-17 in on a low pass over the base, then put it through several tight turns to demonstrate its maneuverability.

    Maj. Mark Chagaris, a pilot assigned to the base’s Air Force Reserve 326th Airlift Squadron, said the aircraft is remarkably easy to fly.

    “You can get down in the weeds on tactical missions to avoid threats,” he said. “Or you can fly strategically to drop cargo wherever it’s needed.”

    The C-17 was specifically designed to fly into rough territory and land on unimproved airstrips, a feature that helps make up for its smaller size and lessened cargo capacity when compared to the C-5.

    Chagaris was Dover’s first reserve pilot to qualify on Globemasters, and has taken them on numerous missions into Iraq and Afghanistan. A number of those flights have included landings on dirt runways where, to minimize insurgent threats to the aircraft, crews must finish unloading operations while its four engines are still running.

    The tactic kicks up a lot of dust, Chagaris said.

    “I’ve seen rocks about the size of baseballs just picked up into the air and then just dropped,” he said.

‘New guy in town’

    After landing, Lichte parked the new Globemaster next to its AMC Museum namesake, one of only a handful of remaining C-124 Globemaster II cargo aircraft. The C-124 was the workhorse of the Air Force’s cargo fleet between 1956 and 1974, Lichte noted, a role its descendant now is filling in the 21st century.

    “You can almost hear those the old aircraft out here say, ‘Hey, here’s the new guy in town,’” he said.

    With its capacity to move military supplies, personnel, paratroopers, the wounded and pallets of humanitarian supplies, the C-17 can bring American airpower to just about any corner of the world, Lichte told the crowd.

    Lichte recognized the Globemaster’s adaptability by noting it was a Dover aircrew that flew the first relief mission into the Georgian capital of Tbilisi after Russia’s August invasion of that nation.

    In combination with the C-5, the C-17 now has reached full operational capability, Lichte said.

    “With the combination of these two airlifters it’s easy to see why Dover is the stepping stone to the rest of the world, and the powerhouse for the East Coast,” he said.

    Designed also for ease of maintenance, the C-17 features a number of off-the-shelf components, fly-by-wire, i.e., electronic controls and a “glass cockpit” using computer displays that deliver more detailed information than manual readouts.

    “This airplane is built for the maintainers,” noted Master Sgt. Ralph Ritter, an air reserve technician assigned to the 712th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. “Two technicians could maintain that aircraft and then send it to wherever they wanted it to go.”

    The “Spirit of Delaware” will be immediately placed in rotation for whatever missions it is needed, said 436th Airlift Wing spokesman 2nd. Lt. Brian Maguire.   

Email news editor Jeff Brown at jeff.brown@doverpost.com.