Message posted by Will(NorCal) on June 04, 2006 at 19:15:37 PST:
I just got home from the show. They wouldn't let my scanner in, but we left early and caught the TBirds with audio from outside the gate. I was talking with an indvidual near the Global Hawk display. He is apparently involved with supporting the aircraft, but is not with the military. He told me that the particular aircraft on display hasn't flown since arriving there in 11/2004. He says it keeps getting taken out of service for upgrades (hence the additional antenna?) but that others associated with the Beale mission are indeed deployed elsewhere. The RC-135 Rivet Joint on display had a roped-off perimiter greater than any other aircraft there. There is hardly a square foot of fuselage that doesn't have some sort of antenna or array attached to it. The underside has small blade-type antennas beginning at the nose and extending back to the wing. Beneath the center of the fuselage there are several mushroom-shaped antennas (like a miniature AWACS-style radome) with more downward facing antennas aft. Up top there is a wire antenna in addition to several others on the fuselage as well as the vertical fin. Both wingtips have probes, and various bulges indicate there is a lot going on inside. An interesting aircraft to look at...;) The air performers were great. The C-17 is an amazing airplane, and gave demonstrations of it's STOL capabilities as well as aerial manueverability. They did a 4-5 flight of T-38s set to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir". It was surreal, but that effect might have been enhanced by the quantity of $7 beers I had consumed. By that point, we had retreated to the shade created by the left wing of a C-5 Galaxy in the display area. My family enjoyed the whole adventure, which was a bit surprising to me. Maybe a Rachel trip will be next...;)
In Reply to: Re: Beale Air Show This Weekend posted by Will(NorCal) on June 04, 2006 at 5:33:07 PST:
Replies: