KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — In the pitch darkness of night, the Canadian military's new C-17 transport plane touched down softly at Kandahar Military Airport on Wednesday in southern Afghanistan.

The pilots landed the giant carrier with its lights extinguished, guided solely by night-vision goggles.

"We took a tactical approach with the night-vision goggles, with the airplane lights turned off, with the engines idling,'' said Maj. Jean Maisonneuve, chief check pilot at 429 Transport Squadron, 8 Wing, in Trenton, Ont.

"In a way, we're sort of pioneers.''

The gigantic, 200-tonne bird of steel is expected to have an effect on Canadian troop confidence as they continue to battle with Taliban insurgents, Maisonneuve said in a short interview shortly after landing.

"This plane will have a positive impact on the morale of the troops. Speaking with my colleagues, I can tell you that everyone is happy to know that we have modern tools at our disposal and a better (transport) capacity than before,'' he said.

The C-17, a four-engine military transport plane built by Boeing, is phenomenal.

It is a little more than 52 metres long, seven metres wide and has a 52-metre wingspan. The inside is about 16 metres tall.

The new planes can carry four-times the amount of cargo of the Hercules C-130 transport planes, formerly the largest planes in the Canadian fleet. The C-17s are designed to replace some of the aging Hercules fleet.

The C-17s can also travel twice as fast, reaching up to 80 per cent of the speed of sound, and have a cruising speed of 1,000 kilometres an hour.

In its giant belly, the plane can carry 77,000 kilograms of cargo, including vehicles, and can transport up to 100 soldiers.

"We could say that a C-17 is capable of doing the work of six Hercules,'' Maisonneuve said.

The planes have not come without their controversy and certainly didn't come cheap.

In total, the four planes purchased by the Canadian government will cost about $3.4 billion, a bill that caused a tremendous political upheaval in the House of Commons.

Former defence minister Gordon O'Connor justified the purchase of the four planes as they would make it easier to transport large quantities of materials for humanitarian missions abroad in the future, as well as help at home.

Last week, the C-17 made its inaugural flight by transporting aid equipment to Jamaica to help in the aftermath of hurricane Dean.

But on Wednesday, the giant grey-blue plane's delivery to Kandahar included 35,000 kilograms of equipment destined for Canadian troops. It was scheduled to depart for Canada just a few hours after landing.

The second C-17 purchased by Canada is slated to arrive in November 2007 and two others in the spring of 2008.