The AF spent way too much $$ keeping that pig flying far too long, even after they got a 2nd permanent and another temp test bird.
What is really sad is the last C-17 is going to a foreign customer.
Once again we shut a line down too soon. Far too many C-17s got rode very, very hard and put up wet during GWOT. The original birds with my toy installed went home to Charleston twice a year, for HSC. Each time their 781s were several dozen pages long (spent way too much time in G081)
The C-17 is a fantastic aircraft, does a great job moving stuff and people and despite several attempts by aircrew only one has been lost (due to extreme aircrew stupidity at Elmendorf)
I didn't even know T1 was up there, I was shocked to see it. I assumed they would've kept it for the museum at Eddies.
That's an impressive place, though. It's been probably 10 years since I've been to the Smithsonian A&S museum in DC, but to my recollection I'd say the one at Wright-Pat is comparable.