C-17 Contract Adds 60 Aircraft

Local 148 members will continue to assemble the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft until at least 2008. The Boeing workers received the good news in August, when the company signed an agreement with the Pentagon to produce an additional 60 aircraft. The original contract called for 120 planes, and was scheduled to run through 2004. Boeing recently delivered its 90th C-17 to the Air Force.

The C-17 is a versatile airlifter that can transport men and heavy equipment to remote areas where other transport aircraft cannot land. Its most famous mission to date was the humanitarian airlift during the Afghan war.

The Long Beach, Calif., facility where the C-17 is assembled was recently named one of the top 10 manufacturing plants in North America by the editors of IndustryWeek magazine.