The C-141 Starlifter was the first jet designed for cargo, and it has been a mainstay of U.S. military airlift since 1965. In 30 different configurations, it has seen, done and carried it all - troops, supplies, vehicles, weapons, refugees, disaster relief, even a large high-powered NASA telescope - from the Persian Gulf to South America to Southeast Asia.
Its easy-to-load 93-foot-long cargo bay will take up to 208 ground troops or 168 paratroops, and it can quickly be converted for med-evac operations. In 1983, once the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, it had been a C-141 that evacuated 78 wounded. Starlifters also brought flood relief to Minnesota in '79, to the Azores in '80, to Louisiana in '83. And when an airliner was hijacked in 1985, a C-141 carried the 39 hostages to freedom. In Desert Storm, C-141s flew over 37,000 departures with an on-time record above 90th.
