How many passengers can a C-17 carry? Lots of numbers being banded around yesterday so here's a thread 👇 pic.twitter.com/ebn4J78PKg

— Andy Netherwood (@AndyNetherwood) August 17, 2021

This is the only accurate thread I’ve seen about the C-17. This person knows what he’s talking about.

The C-17 is a great aircraft. Absolutely enormous on the inside and unlike the C-141 and the C-5, can land on unimproved (read: dirt) airstrips. I was one of the first few hundred people to jump out of one when it was still being tested for airborne/paratrooper operations. (They throw weighted dummies out first to make sure nothing really bad happens. We joked we were the “cheaper dummies.”)

In 1997, I jumped out of a C-17 into Kazakhstan after flying 9,000 miles or so. Though it’s a great plane, never was I so glad to be tossing myself out of one. Those military seats are not comfortable in the least.