Watch This C-17 Make A Bonkers “Tactical Departure” From Portland International Airport (Updated)

Updated Jul 28, 2021 8:58 PM EDT

The C-17 is just about as visceral a manifestation of design tradeoffs between payload, speed, range, and short-field performance as one can imagine. The “Moose” is also the backbone of America’s strategic airlift capabilities, with roughly 222 in service. With the production line shuttered for years , there won’t likely be any more of them, either. Considering these big jets have to get in and out of airports, and even austere landing strips, surrounded by potentially hostile foes , minimizing exposure to enemy fire is key. Hence the use of short field ‘tactical departures,’ which appears, at least to our eyes, to be what a C-17 executed on Wednesday out of Portland International Airport.

The dramatic takeoff occurred at the beginning of a mission where it acted as prey for the 142nd Fighter Wing’s F-15C/Ds that sit quick reaction alert.

Aviation photographer Sean Phillips, who goes by the handle @big_seans_aviation on Instagram , caught the non-standard departure off PDX’s runway 28R on July 21. As you can see below, the McChord AFB-based C-17 makes an abrupt pull-up off the runway after a very short ground roll, before quickly leveling out. It then flies flat out down the runway at low level, rapidly gaining speed, and then enters into a steep climb at the end of the runway. The C-17 then levels out after climbing a couple of thousand feet into the air and proceeds to head out to be intercepted by the Eagles , according to Phillips.

We provided the video on youtube as well as Instagram as some have trouble loading the Instagram video:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sean Phillips (@big_seans_aviation)

A post shared by Sean Phillips (@big_seans_aviation)

Once again, it looks to us like we are seeing a short-field tactical departure-like maneuver here. As noted, such operations can be critical to the survival of the aircraft in war zones. In fact, they can also be useful here at home. Air Force One famously executed a very similar maneuver when leaving Sarasota Airport into the unknown on September 11th, 2001.

If anything, this awesome video is another reminder that the big C-17 is actually a remarkably nimble beast.

We have reached out to some of our C-17 friends for more information (see update at the bottom of the article!). Until then, enjoy these bonus clips of F-15s executing a training scramble to intercept the C-17:

Author’s note: A huge thanks to our buddy Sean Phillips for sharing his videos with us. Make sure to follow him over on Instagram , there is some great stuff on his page!

The pilot told us all about the maneuver and flying with the F-15s on training sorties in this follow-up article.

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2021年7月28日晚上8:58

C-17运输机可以说是有效载荷、速度、航程和短距起降性能之间权衡取舍的最佳体现。“麋鹿”也是美国战略空运能力的支柱，目前约有222架在役。由于生产线已关闭多年，未来可能也不会再有新的C-17生产。考虑到这些大型喷气式飞机需要在机场，甚至是简陋的跑道上起降，并且周围可能存在敌对势力，最大限度地减少暴露在敌方火力下至关重要。因此，短距“战术起飞”成为一种常用的起飞方式，至少在我们看来，周三从波特兰国际机场起飞的一架C-17就采用了这种起飞方式。

这次惊险的起飞发生在任务开始时，它成为了第 142 战斗机联队 F-15C/D 战斗机的猎物，这些战斗机时刻保持快速反应警戒状态。

航空摄影师肖恩·菲利普斯（Sean Phillips，Instagram账号为@big_seans_aviation）于7月21日捕捉到了这架C-17运输机从波特兰国际机场（PDX）28R跑道起飞的非常规过程。正如您在下方视频中所见，这架驻扎在麦克乔德空军基地的C-17在滑行很短的距离后突然拉起，并迅速保持水平飞行。随后，它低空沿跑道全速飞行，速度迅速提升，并在跑道尽头开始陡峭爬升。据菲利普斯称，这架C-17爬升到几千英尺高空后保持水平飞行，并继续向跑道外飞去，等待“鹰”式战斗机的拦截。

我们在 YouTube 和 Instagram 上都提供了视频，因为有些用户无法加载 Instagram 视频：

在 Instagram 上查看此帖子 由 Sean Phillips (@big_seans_aviation) 分享的帖子

Sean Phillips (@big_seans_aviation) 分享的帖子

再次看来，这似乎又是一次短场战术起飞的机动。正如前文所述，此类操作对于战区飞机的生存至关重要。事实上，它们在国内也同样适用。著名的“空军一号”在2001年9月11日从萨拉索塔机场起飞，进入未知领域时，就执行了一次非常类似的机动。

这段精彩的视频再次提醒我们，庞大的 C-17 实际上是一款非常灵活的运输机。

我们已联系了一些C-17的友机以获取更多信息（请参阅文章末尾的更新！）。在此之前，请欣赏以下F-15战斗机执行训练紧急起飞拦截C-17的精彩片段：

作者注：非常感谢我们的朋友肖恩·菲利普斯与我们分享他的视频。一定要在Instagram上关注他，他的主页上有很多精彩内容！

在后续文章中，这位飞行员向我们详细介绍了这次机动飞行以及驾驶 F-15 进行训练飞行的情况。

联系作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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