IT MAY not technically be the biggest aircraft in service by the Australian RAAF but the C-17 Globemaster sure captured the imagination the young and old when it went on display at the Whitsunday Coast Airport yesterday.

RAAF Wing Commander Peter Thompson said the aircraft was used for airlifting oversize cargo all over the world.

"We have used it for strategic moves to the Middle east for operations over there and we have recently just taken some helicopters to Scotland,” he said.

The Globemaster is the heaviest plane in service and is the biggest transport plane but it trumped in overall size by the B 30.

Crews consist of just two pilots and one loadmaster with the C-17 and WC Thompson said for a large aircraft it was very responsive to commands in the air.

"In some ways is responds like a small aircraft and the way it is designed it is very good for landing on precise fields,” he said.

The C-17 has the ability to land on runways as small as 3,500 feet and engines can be switched to reverse while the plane is airborne.

The aircraft weighs 140,000 tonnes and maximum take-off weight is 280,000 tonnes, WC Thompson said.

The RAAF took delivery of the first C-17s in 2006 and the example on the tarmac at the Whitsunday Coast Airport yesterday entered service in 2016 which makes it one of the last Globemasters to be produced before the manufacture of the plane ceased.

Designed for operation in less than optimum war-time conditions WC Thompson said the C-17 has four separate electrical and hydrologic systems and can still function with only two operational engines.

"And that is so it can operate in a hostile environment and it is designed to recover from not good situations,” he said.

Yesterday for the first time the 36 Squadron from the Amberley RAAF base bought the Globemaster to the Whitsundays.

Taking advantage of a non-towered airfield at the Whitsunday Coast Airport WC Thompson said the 36 Squadron had been and will continue to use the airfield as a training ground for young pilots.

We have changed some of out training syllabus to some up here more often and today we are saying 'thanks' and have given people a chance to look over the plane and introduce ourselves to the locals,” he said.