From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #478 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Wednesday, 25 October 1995 Volume 05 : Number 478 In this issue: SR replacement... Red Hats EC-130V See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Corey Lawson Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 21:48:24 -0700 (PDT) Subject: SR replacement... ...isn't the much-rumored-about Aurora, it's really the F/A-18E. If it can do it all for the Navy, bygod, it should do it all for the rest of Air Pentagon. - -------------------------------+--------------------------------------------- Corey Lawson + Daddy lets me drive slowly around the UW Bothell Computer Facilities + driveway on Tuesdays... but only on Tuesdays csl@u.washington.edu + -the Rainman 206.685.5209 + - -------------------------------+--------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: Xelex@aol.com Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 02:37:51 -0400 Subject: Red Hats EC-130V One of the most interesting "black" aircraft at the Edwards AFB Open House was the EC-130V. It was originally built as a HC-130H-360-LM (AFSN 87-0157, Lockheed Build #5121). The aircraft was modified for drug interdiction by the U.S. Coast Guard, primarily through the addition of an AWACS radar from a Grumman E-2C. It is now used as a testbed for classified electronics. It was acquired by the Air Force and arrived at Edwards approximately eight months ago. It spent some time at Hill AFB, Utah recently, and returned to Edwards about three months ago. Usually, the aircraft is kept at Edwards North Base, home of the 413th Test Squadron "Red Hats". It still wears USCG colors but no USCG markings. There is a designation painted in small black characters near the tail: EC-130V. It has no tail number. Normally the tail number is based on the Air Force seial number, and the RADIO CALL placard in the cockpit bears the tail number as well. Presumably then the tail number and RADIO CALL should both read: 70157. The RADIO CALL placard in the EC-130V cockpit, however, reads 1721. According to crewmembers at the airshow, the EC-130V is flown by pilots from the 418th TS, but the 413th TS "Red Hats" conduct the equipment tests. Pallets of sophisticated electronics suites are loaded into the cargo bay behind the E-2C antenna control station. One crewmember said the missions included equipment for "a datalink between the EC-130V and combat aircraft." Besides the AWACS dish, the EC-130V has a number of interesting antenna "bumps and bulges" on the nose and tail, as well as several ram air scoops, perhaps for cooling electronic systems, and providing power from a ram air turbine generator. Peter W. Merlin Aerospace Archeology Field Research Team "THE X-HUNTERS" ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #478 ********************************* To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@mail.orst.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to either "skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu" or, if you don't like to type a lot, "prm@mail.orst.edu A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "skunk-works-digest" in the commands above with "skunk-works". Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from mail.orst.edu, in /pub/skunk-works/digest/vNN.nMMM (where "NN" is the volume number, and "MMM" is the issue number).