For the First Time in Hungary: Airdropping from the C-17

Szöveg: honvedelem.hu | 2014. január 29. 9:03

Successful airdrop exercise was executed by the Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW) stationing in Pápa. During the training held near Veszprém, on Wednesday, January 22, the crew of one of the aircraft dropped its cargo loaded on pallets from a height of 500 meters by a parachute.

One of the C-17 Globemasters on an airdrop exercise

The Heavy Airlift Wing executed an airdrop exercise for the first time in Hungary. After a thorough preparation on the ground, one of the C-17 transport aircraft stationing in the HDF Pápa Base Airport, rose into the sky, in order to get rid of its palletized cargo above the HDF drill ground located near the town of Veszprém.

During the exercise of January 22, they dropped two load pallets with parachute from the opened rear-loading ramp of the C-17. These pallets are usually used to deliver food, drinking water or medicine to their destination, where landing is not possible. A C-17 Globemaster can transport and airdrop all in all 40 pallets, weighing 1 ton, each, at the same time.

The exercise was conducted under the constant control of the ground crew

The airdrop of cargos is one of the most important capabilities of the C-17 transport aircraft, as the plane’s crew can transport cargo or soldiers with the help of different parachute systems, to the target area, without landing. The aircrews can perform the airdrops between the heights of 150 and 7600 meters.

The fleet of the HAW comprising three C-17 aircraft has performed more than 12 thousand flight hours since the establishment of the unit in 2009. The planes and the crews supported the NATO ISAF mission in Afghanistan, and the UN-operations in Mali. In addition to these, they took part in delivering the aid cargos to their destination in Haiti, hit by the earthquake, and to Pakistan, which suffered from heavy flooding.