Aircraft/Missile Information
Airborne astronomy missions NKC-135A Airborne Laser Lab NKC-135A Airborne Laser Lab A USAF NKC-135 "Big Crow" ECM aircraft takes off from a forward-deployed operating base, while a KC-135R tops off its fuel tanks, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A USAF NKC-135 "Big Crow" ECM aircraft takes off from a forward-deployed operating base, while a KC-135R tops off its fuel tanks, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The oversized nose of a USAF NKC-135 "Big Crow" during an inspection by a top USAF general at a forward deployed operating base, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. The oversized nose of a USAF NKC-135 "Big Crow" during an inspection by a top USAF general at a forward deployed operating base, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.
While flying simulations for the Test Readiness Program, the science teams assigned to the NC-135 aircraft realized that their flying laboratories could be effectively used to study solar eclipses, cosmic rays entering the atmosphere and the effects of magnetic fields in the ionosphere. Program scientists petitioned the AEC to allow for a program-within-a-program to use the aircraft for such scientific research. The petition was approved, and research continued through 1975.[2][3]
The first eclipse mission took place from Pago Pago in 1965, and flying in conjunction with several other science aircraft, one of the NC-135s managed to fly within eclipse totality for 160 seconds, providing valuable science data. Eclipse missions were also flown in 1970, 1972, 1973, 1979 and 1980.[2]
[edit] Big Crow
* o + # * o + As of 23, Sept. 2008 both aircraft are at the "bone yard",Davin Monthan, Tuscon, AZ*******
Big Crow is the designation of the two NKC-135 test-bed aircraft (55-3132 and 63-8050) heavily modified for electronic warfare testing, and to be used as a target simulator for flight testing the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL).[4] On March 15, 2007, the YAL-1 successfully fired this laser in flight, hitting its target. The target was the NKC-135E Big Crow 1 test aircraft that has been specially modified with a "signboard" target on its fuselage. The test validated the system's ability to track an airborne target and measure and compensate for atmospheric distortion.[5]
Big Crow aircraft are also used as downrange telemetry assets in conjunction with Western Launch and Test Range launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.[6]
