I used to know a guy who was a crew chief on a C-17. He said they referred to the C-17 as “a fighter jet on steroids” due to its maneuverability.
They sure beat being cargo in a C130 man was not ment to fly.on lawn furniture. For being such a large jet it has impressive short field performance. Not as good as a 130 but not the pavement queen the C5 is.
Those limits can be exceeded as the C-17 accident at Elmendorf AFB AK proved to the unfortunate flight crew onboard.