Found two weird airplanes in Plant 42, anyone care to tell me what they are?

cant believe noone found this yet, the planes in the top pic are C-27 Spartan Transport planes, they look like 2 engine C-130's




the bottom pic is of an F-117 Nighthawk, already established

third pic, F-16s

So a C-27 with its wings clipped then? For fire practice supposedly?

[edit on 16-9-2005 by anorwegianguy1972]

Originally posted by Paladin327
cant believe noone found this yet, the planes in the top pic are C-27 Spartan Transport planes, they look like 2 engine C-130's

I'll concede - they very well may be C-27's... good call Paladin!
They definitely are not U-2's though....

i feel good now,

thank you joint operations!

Originally posted by intelgurl
There is simply no way those are U-2's.

I agree, here is a U-2S (I think). Found it near Swindon, UK. Google Earth as always





[edit on 18-9-2005 by anorwegianguy1972]

Originally posted by intelgurl

Originally posted by ghost


The planes in the above picture are U-2's! the top one has had it's outer wing panels removed.

There is simply no way those are U-2's.

First The wing structure is not narrow and tapered as it is on the high flying U-2, additionally and more obvious is the wing of a C-130 rest on top of the fuselage as is the case in the pictures, where the wing on a U2 is separated by the fuselage.

[edit on 16-9-2005 by intelgurl]

I think you are right Intelgurl. My eyes aren't great, and I sometimes miss important details if the image is slighly blurry (which is how they appear on my computer).

Tim

[edit on 19-9-2005 by ghost]

Originally posted by intelgurl

Originally posted by Paladin327
cant believe noone found this yet, the planes in the top pic are C-27 Spartan Transport planes, they look like 2 engine C-130's

I'll concede - they very well may be C-27's... good call Paladin!
They definitely are not U-2's though....

Maybe not:

The Air Force C-27A fleet consisted of 10 aircraft stationed with the 24th Wing at Howard AFB, Panama, and flown by aircrews from 310th Airlift Squadron. The C-27A Spartan transport was Howard’s trademark in recent years. Built for short takeoffs and landings, it flew in and out of remote areas with dirt or grass landing strips. During the Hurricane Mitch relief effort, Spartans ferried tons of relief goods, most to Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras. Spartans flew most of the cargo from there to remote areas.
www.globalsecurity.org...

If they are they are a long way from home no?

There's a great spot that has two Blackbirds and a Dragon Lady parked there. Looks like a museum with a lot of other birds around them. I found a B-2, a T-38, a BAE-146 among others.

Going by the shape of the wing, it looks like these ARE C-27s.

Here's two more that we can play with. I'm almost positive one is a WB-57, but there is some doubt. The other one, I have NO idea what it could be. Any help would be appreciated.

Not really up on military aircraft, but couldn’t that bottom one be the delta wing F-16 they made for testing years ago? I am not sure of its designation or much else about it.

The questionable C-130 in the above posts, does appear to only have 2 engines on it however…

The wing shape is similar to the F-16XL, but it appears to have twin tails. The F-16 is a single fin.

If you compare the shape of the wing in the first pic to the C-130 it's different. The C-130 has a slight curve to the wing, and wingtips. This wing looks straight the entire length of it.

Originally posted by defcon5
Not really up on military aircraft, but couldn’t that bottom one be the delta wing F-16 they made for testing years ago? I am not sure of its designation or much else about it.

The F-16XL had only one tail. That looks more like the failed Boeing JSF entry with the twin tails and the delta wing.

The picture above it is a U-2 the black cover (Sun shield) over the cockpit is a give away as I have seen it shown in many books on the plane

[edit on 9/19/05 by FredT]

Could be, but it appears to be missing the horizontal stabilizers, and the wingtip shape seems slightly off from the X-32. Here's the X-32A:

What was the plane that was used in the movie “Air America”, it looked like a C-130, but with one engine, and it appeared to have a nose similar to a seaplane?

Originally posted by FredT

Originally posted by defcon5
Not really up on military aircraft, but couldn’t that bottom one be the delta wing F-16 they made for testing years ago? I am not sure of its designation or much else about it.

The F-16XL had only one tail. That looks more like the failed Boeing JSF entry with the twin tails and the delta wing.

The picture above it is a U-2 the black cover (Sun shield) over the cockpit is a give away as I have seen it shown in many books on the plane

[edit on 9/19/05 by FredT]

Yeah, that does look like a U-2. Or an ER-2. The back of the wing threw me off. I haven't ever seen a U-2 with the protrusions like that. It looks like the exhaust from the TF-33s they mounted on the WB-57.

Yeah the one in the satellite photo seems like the delta wing has a thin protrusion or a canard at its tip.

Originally posted by defcon5
What was the plane that was used in the movie “Air America”, it looked like a C-130, but with one engine, and it appeared to have a nose similar to a seaplane?

C-123 Provider.
www.wpafb.af.mil...

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Could be, but it appears to be missing the horizontal stabilizers, and the wingtip shape seems slightly off from the X-32. Here's the X-32A:

Actually I think you put up the YF-35 picks that won the comp. I was thinking of this one



[edit on 9/19/05 by FredT]

So I did. My bad. Yeah that does look a lot like what's parked out there. Another mystery solved by the ATS crew! We rock.

Edited away as you solved it while I was typing

[edit on 19-9-2005 by anorwegianguy1972]

Originally posted by anorwegianguy1972
Edited away as you solved it while I was typing

[edit on 19-9-2005 by anorwegianguy1972]

No worries

NASA flew the U-2 out of Dryden and Ames

Jim Barrilleaux , Dryden Flight Research Center assistant chief pilot for the ER-2s, will explain the Airborne Science mission at the NASA Nights at the Lewis Center for Educational Research. His speech is set for Tuesday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lewis Center, which is located at 20702 Thunderbird Road, Apple Valley, Calif.

The ER-2 is the civilian version of the military U-2 high-altitude aircraft and it is part of NASA's Airborne Science Program. It is used to carry experiments and sensors. ER-2s can carry airborne scientific payloads of up to 2,600 pounds to investigate such matters as earth resources, celestial phenomena, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics and oceanic processes.

In Nov. 18, 1998, Barrilleaux flew the ER-2 to a new world altitude record for medium weight aircraft, reaching 68,700 feet. That's nearly twice the cruising altitude of most airliners. Barrilleaux began his current job in February 1998.

Prior to his assignment to Dryden, he piloted NASA's U-2/ER-2 at Ames Research Center on Moffett Field in the San Francisco Bay area since 1986. There, he flew both the U-2C (until 1989) and the ER-2 on a wide variety of missions both domestic and overseas. He flew high-altitude operations over Antarctica in which scientific instruments aboard the ER-2 defined the cause of the dramatic ozone depletion over the continent, known as the "ozone hole." He has also flown the ER-2 over the North Pole.
www.nasa.gov...

I beleive that they also fly the last small wing U-2 in existance as well.