Boeing EC-135J, 63-8057 / 18705, Pima Air & Space Museum
This picture is © Martin Laycock and may not be used or published without permission.
Registration: 63-8057
Construction Number: 18705
Code Number: 55-3129 / 8057 / FF
Model Boeing EC-135J
Operator: Pima Air & Space Museum
Airport: Tucson - Pima Air and Space Museum, USA - Arizona
Photographer: Martin Laycock
Date Taken: 13/05/1993
Date Submitted: 11/07/2009
At first glance you would think this EC-135 is 55-3129, however, she is actually 63-8057. Just to confuse and confound, she's 'borrowed' the vertical stabilizer from '3129' and was photographed not long after arriving at the museum, and before they had a chance to repaint it! Delivered to the USAF on 3 March 1965 she was used as an airborne command post as part of 'Operation Night Watch'. This mission was (and still is for that matter), to provide a survivable mobile command post for the National Command Authority, including the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, and successors. 'Nightwatch' was initiated in the mid-1960s utilizing three EC-135J aircraft, modified from KC-135Bs. All were based at Andrews AFB, Maryland under the code-name 'Silver Dollar'. The EC-135J was replaced in this role by the Boeing E-4 (a modified 747-200), the first of which which entered service in December 1974. She was retired on 31 March 1992 with only 13,692 hours of flying time. She is displayed at Pima courtesy of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. As an aside, the airframe that donated her vertical stabilizer has an interesting past too, stored in AMARC from 31 January 1992, she served for a time, as a weightlessness trainer and retained a bulkhead autographed by the original Mercury Seven astronauts.
Picture ID:1182282