Photographer unknown

Notice the size of engine number #1

The first of two which were built. First flew in 1975. Stored at Davis-Monthan AFB in 1979. To the Pima Air Museum in 1981. 53 is a Paris Airshow code and CX001 is its Davis-Monthan park code. Returned to flying status as N15YC in 1996. Damaged in an emergency landing at Palmdale in 1998. To Edwards AFB in 2008 and preserved.

C/n also quoted as CX001.

The YC-15 was McDonnell Douglas's entry for the Advanced Medium STOL Transport. Two aircraft were built with this first one loaned to the Pima Air and Space Museum after the program ended. Re-activated in 1996 to develop the larger McDonnell Douglas C-17, the test aircraft suffered a catastrophic number one engine failure and made an emergency landing at Palmdale, CA on July 11, 1998. In 2008 the aircraft was moved by road to Edwards AFB where it was placed on display..

Scanned from a colour slide. A good shot showing the difference in size between the 3 x Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17 engines and the CFM-56 engine which was part of Phase II of the flight test programme. The security man was not going to move!

The first of two which were built. First flew in 1975. Stored at Davis-Monthan AFB in 1979. To the Pima Air Museum in 1981. Returned to flying status as N15YC in 1996. Damaged in an emergency landing at Palmdale in 1998. To Edwards AFB in 2008 and preserved.

Still carrying the AMARC inventory number CX001 on the nose.

Initially preserved in its original USAF markings as 72-1875 at Pima since 1981, but restored to flying condition for use as a testbed in 1996. Registered as N15YC to the United States Government (c/o McDonnell Douglas Corp) on 1 Apr 1977, and first flown for the C-17 development program on 11 Apr 1997. Last flight 11 Jul 1998, and stored at Palmdale. Moved to Edwards AFB in 2008 and now preserved at (the publicly accessible) Century Circle adjacent to the West Gate at Edwards.

The YC-15 was the McDonnell Douglas entry against the Boeing YC-14 in the Advanced Medium STOL Transport (AMST) competition. This, the first of two, made her maiden flight on 28.8.75 and was later used as a CFM-56 engine test-bed. Registered as N15YC 4.97; moved from Palmdale to Edwards AFB in 4.08 and now displayed near the west gate (Rosamond) in the Century Circle. Although neither design was adopted, McDonnell Douglas later of course went on to develop the successful C-17 Globemaster III