Joint Base Charleston Investigating How A Boeing C-17 Globemaster Tail Cone Landed In A School Parking Lot

A Boeing C-17 Globemaster
III based out of South Carolina’s Joint Base Charleston lost part of its tail. Luckily for all involved, the tail cone – also known as the aft radome – landed in a parking lot without causing harm.

Photos of the event on X

Via X (formerly known as Twitter), one can see three photos of where the Divine Redeemer Catholic School and Church in Hanahan, South Carolina, the C-17 part came to rest. Additionally, what the C-17 part was:

Yet the photos do not tell all of the story. To attempt to explain what happened and reassure the public, the United States Air Force
has issued a statement.

United States Air Force statement

Simple Flying received the following statement from 628th Air Base Wing Public Affairs at Joint Base Charleston:

“A Joint Base Charleston C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the 437th Airlift Wing landed safely after a malfunction in flight. The crew of the C-17 notified Joint Base Charleston and returned to base after a piece of the tail cone fell off during flight. A team recovered the piece of the aircraft, and no injuries or property damage were reported. The incident is under investigation.”

No further details were released, including which C-17 dropped the tail radome or who will conduct the investigation. However, a review of the photos uncovers interesting details.

C-17 tail radome built by a subcontractor

As per one of the photos, one can see that the part that fell was an aft radome built by “General Dynamics ATP” – short for General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products . General Dynamics ATP had been a subcontractor for Boeing’s C-17 work, producing parts such as the aft radome, the flaps, and winglets. When large aircraft are built, the primary contractor hires subcontractors to mass-produce parts for the final aircraft. Boeing produced a YouTube as per below of the world’s last C-17 Globemaster was in final assembly.

One can also see a close-up of C-17 final assembly below:

Note the darker color on the C-17 tail to the right. That darker color is the tail radome.

About the C-17’s unique T-tail

The “tail radome,” however, does not serve as coverage for a rear-facing radar. It’s just an aerodynamic fairing below the iconic T-tail. One can read below about the C-17’s T-tail:

For the C-17, having a T-tail and an aerodynamic aft radome means that airflow from the wing does not interfere with the elevator atop the tail, nor the rudder going down the tail. This allows those control services to work with full authority in all flight conditions, including in a stall. Additionally, the C-17 is intended to require in a pinch only these distances:

• Take-off: 3,000 feet (914 meters)
• Landing: 3,500 feet (1,067 meters)

Additionally, having a t-tail above the fuselage helps with clearer loading and unloading of the mighty C-17 through the rear ramp. One should remember that the C-17 has a maximum payload of 170,900 pounds or 77,519 kg. But this is not all the C-17 can do as the C-17 can do aeromedical evacuation and be refueled in flight as one can read about below.

Finally, the C-17 is well-known as an airshow performer as per the below photos:

Ultimately, the C-17 losing a tail radome is not catastrophic in of itself, and the incident will be investigated by the United States Air Force. But the incident helps highlight how capable the C-17 is.

Photo: Senior Airman George Goslin | Joint Base Charleston | US Air Force

Finally, according to Air and Space Forces Magazine, 222 C-17s still serve in the US Air Force with an average age of 21.16 years, only a couple of years younger than the US Air Force’s average age of transports of 23.94 years. The last C-17 delivered to the US Air Force was on September 12, 2013 as pictured above.