RC-135 at Perth Airport

[glennlcasey]

Hey fellas, well i flew back into perth today, and as we landed and rolled off the active, i glanced out the window, and to my surprise i saw a US Air Force jet sitting by the International terminal. At first glance, it looked like a KC-135 Stratotanker. After getting home, having some lunch and freshening up, i grabbed my camera and headed back to the airport. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a RC-135 Rivet Joint Aircraft



It looked odd, with the large black radome on top of the fuselage, as well as the bulbous nose radar.


Also, for some reason, the front half of the port side of the fuselage was painted black. While i was there, i took a few other photos, but they didnt really turn out mainly due to shooting through smear infested tinted glass. Here's a couple that turned out ok.

Saying Goodbye to a QANTAS  A330



Home safe

By the way, i'm still learning my way around my new digital SLR, so if anyone has any advice i'll be glad to take it on board. i have a Samsung GX10. Its not doing too badly actually

[an-225]

Excuse the language but **** I would have loved to have been in Perth at that time. We have only ever received an E-4B and VC-25 (though both rare) in Sydney.  :P Lucky catch Glenn, and good to see you back on the forums.

[spitfire boy]

gah that is one fugly aircraft... the nose looks like gromit's (wallace and gromit = hilarity)... nice shots though... it must be hard work taking decent shots of planes so repulsive they make you want to rip your own eyeballs out... (joke)

Nice shots glen - the A330 one I particularly like...

[glennlcasey]

Hey fellas, seems i made a misclassification. the Aircraft is actually a highly modified KC-135 Stratotanker, called the NKC-135E, known as the big crow. Mainly used for electronic warfare and that sort of jive. heres a picture of it

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1172265/M/

and some info

http://www.spyflight.co.uk/nck135e.htm

i'll be hanging around the airport over the next few days, maybe get a few shots of it leaving

[bok269]

I believe it was used to test the YAL-1 airborne laser.  Great shots.  What a catch!

[Omag 2.0]

Now that's pretty rare! Great catch!

[BAW0343]

I didn't think it was Rivet Joint, I just couldn't find what that thing was  ;)   I saw Rivet Joint at my local airshow this year and that certainly ain't it but its close.