C-141 Starlifters transported troops and cargo for over 40 years before C-17s made them obsolete. Take a look inside.

Built by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin, and unveiled by President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the first C-141A model entered service in 1965.

The C-141B, which first flew in 1977, could carry up to 68,000 pounds of cargo — 30% more than the C-141A — and fly as fast as 500 miles per hour, powered by four turbofan engines.

Retired in 1996, the museum’s C-141B Starlifter is now an exhibit open to the public. Admission to the Air Mobility Command Museum is free.

C-141B Starlifters have two troop doors, one on either side, behind each wing. The cargo doors for loading, unloading, and airdropping cargo were located in the rear.

The plane could hold up to 168 paratroopers. C-141B Starlifters dropped paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division into Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury in 1983 and into Panama during Operation Just Cause in 1989, among other operations.

The cargo bay could transport cargo as well as troops, who would sit on the foldout red benches. There was room for 205 service members.

The C-141 could be configured to carry many types of wheeled vehicles: towed artillery, armored personnel carriers, and trucks.

Large cargo planes deliver the food, fuel, supplies and vehicles that are the lifeblood of operations, and a critical component of the US’ global footprint.

Made of aluminum and balsa wood, 463L pallets are named for the month and year they were developed, April 1963. The nylon nets help keep the cargo secure in up to 8 Gs, or 8 times the force of gravity.

Unlike the C-141A, the C-141B was capable of being refueled while in flight thanks to aerial tankers that could transfer fuel via an extendable gas pump called a boom.

With no need to stop and refuel, the C-141B could fly nonstop to and from international destinations.

The crew rest area was located behind the flight deck.

The jump seat was used by the second flight engineer, known as the scanner when not seated at the flight engineer’s console.

The flight deck windows of a C-141B Starlifter are nearly identical to those of a C-5 Galaxy, the Air Force’s largest plane, with the exception of the center windshield.

The role largely became obsolete with the introduction of digital technology.

The C-17 Globemaster III only requires three crew members: a pilot, co-pilot, and loadmaster. It can transport up to 170,900 pounds of cargo — more than twice the capacity of the C-141B — and fly at 450 knots, or about 517 miles per hour. It can also operate on runways as short as 3,500 feet.

The C-17 entered service in 1993 and continues to support the Air Force’s combat operations and humanitarian missions, picking up where the C-141 Starlifters left off as the US military’s primary long-haul transport aircraft. Boeing has a $2.5 billion contract to sustain the Air Force’s C-17s, and there continues to be interest in building new Globemasters even though Boeing closed the production line over a decade ago.

“In every conflict, every disaster, every contingency anywhere on the globe, Starlifter crews have been the first responders,” June Shrewsbury, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of Strategic Airlift, said at a C-141 retirement ceremony held in 2004. “The C-141 has quite a record of achievement.”