Final new C-17 transport leaving Boeing plant in Long Beach

In ceremonies attended by hundreds of Boeing employees, the aerospace giant formally ended production of the C-17 with a rollout of the final transport and a commemorative flyover of the company’s assembly facility at Long Beach Airport.

Boeing Company has announced in a press release that its final C-17 Globemaster III military aircraft has departed the company’s plant in Long Beach, California on Sunday, November 29, 2015.

Boeing produced the C-17 – a military transport jet capable of carrying 82 tons – for more than 20 years in Long Beach before announcing in September 2013 that the program would end after the U.S. Air Force stopped buying the aircraft and worldwide orders slowed to a crawl.

The last of 279 C-17s to be built at Long Beach flew over the assembly facility there on Sunday (US time) before heading to the company’s San Antonio site for short-term storage ahead of delivery to Qatar early next year.

Boeing still has more than 16,000 employees in California working on programs ranging from satellite manufacturing to cyber security.

About 2,200 employees are losing their jobs, although many have retired or transferred to other Boeing operations. However, that’s a almost 50 percent cut in the workforce in the past decade. However, the industry has been shrinking for decades.

Last month, the Air Force chose Virginia-based Northrop Grumman Corp.to build its next-generation bomber.

“I was here when the first C-17 left, and I am here for the last C-17”.