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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:07:14 PM EDT
This afternoon, this unknown aircraft was doing touch-and-go's at Bergstrom in Austin. Did about five of them then left. Everyone in the pattern was leaving on left-hand departures, but this bird kept doing right-hand departures to get back into the pattern. It was a HUGE plane, no windows, no markings and a funny 'bump' on the top/front fusalage.
I've never seen it before, nor seen one like it. That begs the question, what is it?   |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:09:13 PM EDT
[#1]
it's a 707 derivative..... looks like it might be an E-8, but not positive.
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:09:45 PM EDT
[#2]
UFO
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:11:01 PM EDT
[#3]
kc 135
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:11:16 PM EDT
[#4]
tag
no clue but curious myself |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:11:31 PM EDT
[#5]
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:11:41 PM EDT
[#6]
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:12:24 PM EDT
[#7]
actually, not an E-8.... E-8's only have the radar canoe under the jet, and nothing on the roof
 It's still a 707 derivitave. Possibly a new kind of AWACS jet with a much smaller radome |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:12:59 PM EDT
[#8]
no fueling boom underneath it. It's an E-something And it's a new jet too. You can tell by the engine nacelles. Look at the ones on the original pic vs the one I posted. the original pic jet's nacelles are 3 times the size. this means it has the new engines they're putting in the 707 family |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:13:02 PM EDT
[#9]
Given the bulge I would say AWACS/Weather/Electronic Surveilence. Just a guess.
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:13:06 PM EDT
[#10]
E6B mercury with a satcom antenna
linkie http://www.air-and-space.com/Boeing%20707%20Military.htm |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:14:07 PM EDT
[#11]
It's an E-6, guarantee. The dome on the top is a satcom dish. 
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:15:15 PM EDT
[#12]
Um, a styrofoam glider maybe?
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:16:24 PM EDT
[#13]
The only difference i see are the engines. But that could be an easy mod.
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:16:55 PM EDT
[#14]
That looks like your answer. 
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:17:53 PM EDT
[#15]
Airborne nuclear weapons command center, interesting....
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:18:32 PM EDT
[#16]
So what's an E-6 primarily used for?
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:19:02 PM EDT
[#17]
give that man a cigar (LINK ) 
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:19:43 PM EDT
[#18]
Recon and surveilance mostly, also command and control. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:21:22 PM EDT
[#19]
The E-6 uses the same (except they have thrust reversers) engines as the KC-135R. The E-8 in the picutre has the same motors as the KC-135E (and quite a few other birds). |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:21:32 PM EDT
[#20]
I thought they retired those when they shut down "Looking Glass". |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:21:59 PM EDT
[#21]
I saw that one flying in formation with a similar sized aircraft just north of San Antonio around 3:30-4:00pm. Could barely make them out, but found it interesting as you usually don't see large aircraft side by side like that. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:22:36 PM EDT
[#22]
Communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. Provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne command, control, and communications between the National Command Authority (NCA) and U.S. strategic and non-strategic forces. Two squadrons, the "Ironmen" of VQ-3 and the "Shadows" of VQ-4 deploy more than 20 aircrews from Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma to meet these requirements. Background Boeing derived the E-6A from its commercial 707 to replace the aging EC-130Q in the performance of the Navy's TACAMO ("Take Charge and Move Out") mission. TACAMO links the NCA with naval ballistic missile forces during times of crisis. The aircraft carries a very low frequency communication system with dual trailing wire antennas. The Navy accepted the first E-6A in August 1989. The E-6B was conceived as a replacement for the Air Force's Airborne Command Post due to the age of the EC-135 fleet. The E-6B modified an E-6A by adding battlestaff positions and other specialized equipment. The E-6B is a dual-mission aircraft capable of fulfilling either the E-6A mission or the airborne strategic command post mission and is equipped with an airborne launch control system (ALCS). The ALCS is capable of launching U.S. land based intercontinental ballistic missiles. The first E-6B aircraft was accepted in December 1997 and the E-6B assumed its dual operational mission in October 1998. The E-6 fleet was completely modified to the E-6B configuration in 2003. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:24:33 PM EDT
[#23]
The E-6B took over the Looking Glass mission. The mission crew still uses the same name. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:26:58 PM EDT
[#24]
Yep, This guy was doing his touch & go's with his last one at 2:55pm in Austin. That would put him/them in SA shortly thereafter. Good catch. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:30:15 PM EDT
[#25]
Looks similar to one flying around Corpus Christi about the time of Cheney's hunting trip. I was wondering if it had to do with air space security. See it here on occasion. Never had a camera handy when it flew by.
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:36:51 PM EDT
[#26]
If it had to do with Cheney, there's a better chance that it was an E-4B than an E-6B. 
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:47:42 PM EDT
[#27]
Have you gentlemen ever heard of a thing called OPSEC? Everytime a "different" aircraft or troop formation is spotted, you do not need to run and post it on the internet. One pic could be the missing link in some intel puzzle of those that wish to do us harm.
WW2 had it's slogan "loose lips sink ships", with the information age comes even more peril to operational security. Think before you post military information, time to loosen the tinfoil. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:50:59 PM EDT
[#28]
It's the 'And now we blow up the world' plane... E-6 TACAMO |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 2:52:24 PM EDT
[#29]
I'm just guessing that if it was something other than a training mission then they wouldn't be running around the flag pole. Unless that's what they'd want us to think. 
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:05:39 PM EDT
[#30]
Not to sound like a phrase usage fascist, but "begs the question" is apparently undergoing a change. I love stuff like this. beg the question Take for granted or assume the truth of the very thing being questioned. For example, Shopping now for a dress to wear to the ceremony is really begging the questionshe hasn't been invited yet. This phrase, whose roots are in Aristotle's writings on logic, came into English in the late 1500s. In the 1990s, however, people sometimes used the phrase as a synonym of "ask the question" (as in The article begs the question: "What are we afraid of?"). Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:11:11 PM EDT
[#31]
might be one of thoselaser equipped prototypes they say can knock down icbm's and such?
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:19:31 PM EDT
[#32]
It sure looks alot like one of those planes that the Bush Administration had flown into the WTC
   
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:19:49 PM EDT
[#33]
why it is obvious it is a Camel Plane!
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:22:37 PM EDT
[#34]
As if the Spelling & Grammer Nazi's weren't enough "Not just a gun site anymore"
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:25:56 PM EDT
[#35]
And everyone the FBI picks up is inherently a terrorist, otherwise they wouldn't have picked them up, right? |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:27:56 PM EDT
[#36]
 ARF.COM is being monitored after all , not just by AFT, FBI, DOD NSA but add to the list AQ, Hamas, and every ROP'er cell out their, WOW I didn't realize what I had signed up for.  Just struck me as funny  ETA: Quick somebody run up to the gate next time and tell them to fly planes like that only at night time!!!! Security lapses like this must be Bushes fault!!! |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:37:45 PM EDT
[#37]
Neat - a buddy of mine mentioned he'd seen an E3 Sentry flying in North Austin today - could have been the other aircraft you saw with this one. Cheers, kk7sm |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:49:37 PM EDT
[#38]
If they're doing "touch and gos," it's not an operational mission. It's a training mission. I used to work in the flight path for ABI and saw all kinds of military flights going in and out of it on training missions. It's a regular stop for training pilots from Randolph AFB, Shepard AFB, etc. If AQ is getting their intel from ar15.com rather than from having human intelligence assets watching airfields, especially civilian airfields that get a whole lot of training flights a day, they're really in trouble.  If the USAF wanted to maintain OPSEC on the mission, they wouldn't be flying into a public commercial airport.  There's a lot of people on here who think airplanes are kind of neat since they do that flying thing, so they're curious about airplanes. |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 3:54:49 PM EDT
[#39]
Too late..
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