Boeing on Thursday delivered the Air Force’s 223rd C-17 transport, completing the service’s production order some 20 years after the first delivery. “Thank you for delivering to our nation combat airlift—that is the definition of the C-17—the most versatile, most capable, most ready airlifter ever built,” said Gen. Paul Selva, head of Air Mobility Command, at the delivery ceremony at Boeing’s final assembly facility in Long Beach, Calif. “While this is the last new C-17 to be added to the Air Force fleet, the mission does not stop here. The C-17 delivers hope and saves lives, and with the Air Force in the pilot’s seat, it will continue to do so well into the future,” said Chris Chadwick, Boeing Military Aircraft president, according to the company’s release. Following the ceremony, the factory-fresh C-17, P-223, departed for JB Charleston, S.C., its new home, with Selva, Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Stanley Clarke, and Air Force Reserve Command chief Lt. Gen. James Jackson aboard. At Charleston, the three generals took part in the ceremony welcoming the aircraft. (See also Global Workhorse.) (Also, Charleston’s Facebook site has postings on the event.)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.