US Navy C-40A Clipper 166696 departure and more at Cardiff airport on the 2/5/21

Another day at Cardiff on the bank holiday Sunday, this was to see a C-40 Clipper that had arrived from Oceana the night before depart the next day.
The C-40A is a military variant of the Boeing 737NG designated 737-700C civil aircraft which has an increased gross weight, midsize version of the 737 family of twin jet airliners. The first flight of the aircraft took place in April 2000. The United States Navy received their first airframe in April 2001 and entered service with the United States Naval Reserve Fleet Support Squadron. A total of 17 airframes have been delivered to date to the US Navy.

The aircraft replaced the Naval Reserve fleet of C-9B Skytrain aircraft which was retired by 2014. The C-40A is the first new logistics aircraft in 17 years to join the US Naval Reserve.

The aircraft are certified to operate in three configurations – all-passenger (121 passengers), all-cargo (up to eight pallets) or combination (‘combi’) configuration that will accommodate up to three cargo pallets and 70 passengers on the main deck. The US Naval Reserve will staff and operate the aircraft.

Global trek is ground handling company at Cardiff which have contracts with US military to handle their aircraft at Cardiff on their stopover’s so thanks to them we’ve been getting some interesting visitors in recently. This particular aircraft is a US navy one, they have 17 in their fleet they defer from USAF counterparts as they not BBJ’s the main noticeable difference being the Pod the vertical fin the USAF ones the US Navy ones don’t have this. This particular one was 9 years old at the time of filing have being built in June 2011. It departed for its 4h or so flight Chania Greece. Nice to see something a bit different and always good to see a rarer variant of 737 family basically any other one other than the 800.????.

I also got the only the Scheduled flight of the day a Vueling A320 departing to Alicante. Nice to see flights starting come back. There was also a nice Legacy 500. Anyway quiet but interesting day at CWL as always, hope you enjoy like, comment and subscribe for more aviation content.