What It Takes to Fly The $340 Million C-17 Globemaster III | Boot Camp

One of the biggest cargo planes in the world, the C-17 Globemaster III has a payload capacity of 172,000 pounds. The massive plane is used in a variety of missions, including evacuation efforts and troop transport in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021. This aircraft requires only three crew members to fly: a pilot, a copilot, and a loadmaster. Insider spent three days at Travis Air Force Base, where we observed the training required to fly these giant $340 million feats of engineering. That training included mastering the flight simulator, planning the proper execution of a mission, and then putting that mission into action with an instructor pilot and performing it in the sky. In a previous version of this video, our voiceover incorrectly stated that the C-17’s maximum payload is 585,000 pounds. That number refers to the aircraft’s maximum takeoff weight. We regret the error. MORE BOOT CAMP VIDEOS: How Fighter Pilots Train To Fly The Marine Corps’