C-17 Globemaster Flyover - Knoxville Tennessee

A C-17 from the Tennessee Air National Guard's 164th Airlift Wing in Memphis flew over my house today on the way to Neyland Stadium. These things are huge, video doesn't do it's size justice. Are these just military cargo type planes or are the weaponized?

a reply to: esteay812

They're cargo planes. However there are plans to make them capable of launching cruise missiles from palettes ejected out the back of the cargo bay. It would be a relatively cheap way of saturating a target quickly.

en.wikipedia.org...(missile_system)

a reply to: esteay812

Love watching the "Biggies" fly by. They always look like they'll drop out of the sky at any moment cause they never appear to be flying as fast as they really are. The sound they generate is stunning.

a reply to: Caver78

Blew my mind! It looked A LOT bigger in person. It also seemed so slow moving. Made me really wonder how it was staying in the air. I'm sure it was just a very low cruising speed since its was very low and over a residential area. It's basically the size of a skyscraper floating through the air. Insane.

Also, the sound is amazing. It's definitely not stealth mission plane, 😂. The sound is very intimidating though. Just a magnificent machine.

originally posted by: esteay812
a reply to: Caver78

Blew my mind! It looked A LOT bigger in person. It also seemed so slow moving. Made me really wonder how it was staying in the air. I'm sure it was just a very low cruising speed since its was very low and over a residential area. It's basically the size of a skyscraper floating through the air. Insane.

And they're small compared to the C-5.

We just had them training in the LC Valley.... (Lewiston ID)..... Always fun to watch.
www.facebook.com...

An additional C-17 flew over Knoxville yesterday, on the 22nd. It was so low, and so loud, that it frightened sh!t out of me.

a reply to: Nickn3

It was the same one. They were doing practice runs for the flyover. They were getting the timing just right so they would flyover during a certain point in the anthem, when the fireworks go off. . . "the bombs bursting in air. . . "

a reply to: Nickn3

Also... Don't you think it looked so much lower and bigger than it seems in the video? It looked like you could throw a rock up and hit it, 😂

a reply to: 1947boomer

I actually got the privilege of watching a demonstration of that capability via live feed I believe a year ago!

a reply to: esteay812

The C-130s are the ones that are heavily armed, well only a few of them. Most are just for moving cargo and personnel.

The AC-130 gunships are amazing. They have a 25mm Gatling-gun (capable of firing 1800 rounds per minute), a single-barrel, rapid-fire 40mm Bofors cannon (that's 40mm grenades), and a 105mm Howitzer.

a reply to: watchitburn

The stress that puts on the airframe I am sure means they are very rarely used and most likely stripped down after....oh idk 2-3 times of use.
Freaking awesome though man!

a reply to: watchitburn

I have been checking them out tonight. I can hardly believe how much larger the C-5 is. I thought the C-17 was massive. I would've flipped out if I saw the C-5 flying that low near me.

a reply to: Stopstealingmycountry

I'm not sure about their maintenance cycle. We had two in the area for support when I was in Iraq. And we knew it was going to be a good day when they were available.

a reply to: watchitburn
Dude have you watched "The Covenant"?
If not it is on Prime and the end scene man!!
Go watch if ya haven't yet.

I live about half a mile from the end of the most frequently used runway at Stratton ANG base in NY and work literally directly across the street from it. The C-130s coming out of there are so unbelievably loud people freak out the first few times they take off or land but you get used to it fast and it just becomes background noise, especially since they're training aircraft so they'll do circles over the entire county a couple hundred feet off of the ground for a few hours a day.

Every now and then we'll get a C-17 or C-5 and all I can say about that is being that close for takeoff and landing is something you don't get used to fast.

The biggest I've seen was for an airshow out of there a while back, they had an Antanov AN-124. It only flew once because everyone around the airport/base filed noise complaints.

a reply to: Stopstealingmycountry

I saw it, it's a good movie. But I've had my ass saved by AC-130s more than a few times. I don't need a movie to appreciate them.

a reply to: watchitburn

Never been in any situation that would require such a need.
I apologize if I offended.

a reply to: Stopstealingmycountry

No worries.

a reply to: Stopstealingmycountry

The AC-130 spends years flying and shooting. Those guns are all mounted to minimize stress on the airframe, and the airframe is reinforced where it needs to be. The AC-130U first flew in 1990 and entered service in 1995, and the last was retired in 2020. The AC-130H had a PDM interval of 48 or 60 months, while the AC-130U had a PDM interval of 60 months, after the first PDM at 144 months. That means every 4-5 years the aircraft was stripped down and major repair work done if needed. In 2007, the PDM of an AC-130 was completed in 146 days, with a scheduled period of 181 days.