Hansen
There’s just something awesome and satisfying about a 5,200 pound HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) being parachuted out of an even more massive Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. The $218 million airplane is capable of transporting a payload of 170,000 pounds, more than enough to support the following (according to Wikipedia):
102 paratroopers or
134 troops with palletized and sidewall seats or
54 troops with sidewall seats (allows 13 cargo pallets) only or
36 litter and 54 ambulatory patients and medical attendants or
Cargo, such as an M1 Abrams tank, three Strykers, or six M1117 Armored Security Vehicles
In this training video, the C-17 transport is seen successfully parachuting eight Humvee military convoy vehicles to a drop zone in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. There’s just something about the smooth gliding of the Humvee storage container through the aft ramp, the immediate parachute deployment, and slow descent, that looks so satisfying.
(Source: Youtube & Wikipedia)
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