"COMCO" 757

Not the clearest of shots, taken in the wind and rain and fading light on Saturday night, but better than nothing! It appears to be routed HNL to GUM at the present time now, Sunday. N226G arrived from PHX.

COMCO N226G

Here is a shot of an unusual visitor to HNL. This Boeing 757-23A, N226G (c/n 25491/511), is owned by a company called COMCO, which is owned by another company called L-3 Capital. It has reportedly done a lot of work for prominent defense contractor Raytheon (a longtime fixture at the Nevada Test Site and Area 51, Tonopah, NV) and the CIA.

Depending on whom you speak to about this aircraft, N226G is widely suspected of being one of two infamous "rendition planes." "Rendition", according to the conspiracy theorist, are the planes used to transport high value prisoners to supposed CIA prisons in other countries so they can be "tortured". The other COMCO 757-200 is N610G.

COMCO 757

Also seen in HNL today is a COMCO 757-22L, N610G (c/n 29304). This rarebird was parked at Gate 28.

According to their website, COMCO is "an aviation and engineering services company. Although we conduct a variety of aviation related business, COMCO specializes in providing engineering testing services in the areas of avionics, aircraft structure and airframe modifications, power-plant, aircraft systems integration, long-range communications, aircraft instrumentation, and other research and development programs specifically dealing with aircraft systems, maintainability, and habitability."

So, why it was parked at a gate rather than a hard stand? It's a mystery since this 757 is supposed to be a test bed. I'm not sure if they also do passenger charter work. I think it is currently parked on the South Ramp since I saw it crossing the airfield instead of heading towards to the end of the runway.