Plane

[Dizzy1]

Actually, they are not "basically" the same, they are in fact identically the same. The RCAF fleet of C-17's (designated CC-177 in Canada) is identical to the USAF fleet of C-17's. The fact that the C-17 is officially called the CC-177 in Canada has nothing at all to do with being somewhat different than it's USAF (or RAF or RAAF) counterparts, it's simply a different numbering system.

The Canadian Forces (now RCAF again finally) aircraft numbering system mandates that all aircraft follow the same numbering convention; namely C"L"-"NNN".
The first letter is always "C" meaning Canada of course.
The second letter defines the primary role or mission of the aircraft.
C= Cargo or Transport,
E= Electronic Warfare,
F= Fighter,
H= Helicopter,
P= Patrol,
T= Trainer,
U= Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and
X=Experimental

These two alpha characters are followed by a three digit number that begins at 100. When an aircraft enters RCAF service quite often the actual aircraft model number or US designation number are retained but if not already a three digit number they are converted to a three digit number. This is why the F-18 became the CF-188 and the C-17 became the CC-177. If the US designation is already three digits then it is often adopted as is which is why the F-101 Voodoo became the CF-101 Voodoo and the F-104 Starfighter became the CF-104 Starfighter. Some aircraft such as the F-5 Freedom Fighter could not be converted to a similar Canadianized number so it became the CF-116 Freedom Fighter although for its entire RCAF/CF service it was routinely referred to as the "F-5".

You learn something new everyday. Thanks for sharing :)

[ferri]

was this it Frisk?

http://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton/ ... uzzes-city

[Frisk]

Yep, it must be!