13 July 2007

"Big Crow" NKC-135E

Thursday, 7/12 saw the arrival on Rwy 8L of the USAF Materiel Command's NKC-135E 55-3132 (c/n 17248). Definitely a rare sight, it no longer has the top or bottom canoes attached to the fuselage that can be seen here. According to Wikipedia, Big Crow is the designation of the two NKC-135 test-bed aircraft (55-3132 and 63-8050) heavily modified for electronic warfare testing, and to be used as a target simulator for flight testing the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL).

On March 15, 2007, the YAL-1 successfully fired this laser in flight, hitting its target. The target was the NKC-135E Big Crow 1 test aircraft that has been specially modified with a "signboard" target on its fuselage. The test validated the system's ability to track an airborne target and measure and compensate for atmospheric distortion.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

yup, saw that one on the HIK ramp. Cool bird!

testing said...

Nice to see that old plane again, my dad was the civilian director of EW testing and the airborne team on the Crow through the 70's. I used to get to see her up close and personal a few times when I got to go to work with him at Kirtland, AFB.

That plane as seen it all, I still remember in 77 or 78 when they lost their #4 engine near Grants, NM, but still brought her home.

Anonymous said...

The plane lost the engine in 74, I was the flight engineer on board, new your dad well, went to Fort Worth for air trails was onboard her first flight

Unknown said...

Miss the old girl. That was probably one of my best duty stations in 22 years, 84-87.