Multinational C-17 Unit Hits 6,000 Flight Hours

Multinational C-17 Unit Hits 6,000 Flight Hours: In less than three years of operation, the 12-nation Heavy Airlift Wing at Papa AB, Hungary, has amassed 6,000 flight hours with its three C-17 transports. The unit hit this milestone on Dec. 9; together with the flight hours, it has now delivered more than 27,000 tons of cargo and more than 14,000 passengers around the globe. The HAW received its first aircraft in July 2009 and reached 1,000 flight hours in February 2010. It hit the 3,000 flight-hour mark last December. According to wing officials, the unit’s busy C-17s needed only the past three months to accumulate the latest 1,000 flight hours. The wing is a cooperative effort of 10 NATO nations (United States, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia), along with Finland and Sweden. (Papa report by Annele Apajakari) (For more on HAW, read C-17s in Hungary from Air Force Magazine’s 2011 archive.)