KenV Is the last whitetail C-17 sold or earmarked for anyone? ....my understanding is that 14-0003 (msn 50273/F272) is currently still reg N272ZD, unsold at Boeing Long Beach.
No. It's still in long term storage at the San Antonio depot with no customer in sight. The Long Beach plant no longer exists. Bldg 54, the C-17 final assembly building, is gutted and the flight line outside is derelict. Bldg 52 still has a few C-17 support engineers in it but they will be gone very soon and then Bldg 52 will be gutted. C-17 production is well and truly done. Forever.
As for the "C-17 sales pitches", they were all posted to refute the claims made about turbofan vs turboprop military airlifters. Almost all of the "tactical limitations" attributed to turbofans were a crock as the C-17 has been demonstrating for decades. And if the RAF is not planning on using the C-17's tactical capabilities as was asserted above, they're pi$$ing away a lot of money to upgrade and standardize their entire fleet to the block 19 standard, acquire airdrop and other tactical equipment, and to train their crews in the C-17's tactical systems/procedures. UK-1 (Fu-77) is in San Antonio now and I was aboard just a few minutes ago. Without violating ITAR or other export regulations, lets just say that the tactical systems installations are essentially complete, the UARSSI system is fully functional, and its on schedule for paint and final delivery. Is the RAF going to use all of the expensive upgrades they've paid for? That depends mostly on how much training they are willing and able to pay for. The tactical systems and equipment are bought, paid for, and installed, so now all they've got to do is train their crews to use it. I'm assuming (perhaps a big fat false assumption) that having paid for the equipment and its installation, that they'll find the money to train their crews. Of course that is uncertain. I don't know how it works in the UK, but there are different colors of money in the US. Some money can only be spent for acquisition and different color money must be used for operations, which in the US includes training. Maybe the RAF still needs to obtain the different color money to do the training.