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Author
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Topic: NASA assets over Afghanistan
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gliderpilotuk
Member Posts: 3398
From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 08-29-2007 05:51 AM
   
One of the two NASA WB-57F Canberras was recently seen at RAF Mildenhall and conducted flights over the UK. Not unusual, but this time the aircraft had been stripped of all NASA identification and was apparently on its way to Afghanistan. One internet forum claims it is conducting a "mineral survey", but given the recent retirement of the RAF's Canberras which were performing much of the aerial reconnaissance over that country and previous use of the WB-57 for military testing, it could well be conducting military reconnaissance.
Are NASA assets inter-operable with the military?Paul
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star61
Member Posts: 294
From: Bristol UK
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 08-29-2007 07:00 AM
I would love to fly a high altitude mission in one of the WB57s. If you look at Davis-Monthan on google earth you can see one next to some normal B57s. Amazing wing, amazing aircraft.
Had a flight in a PR Canberra from RAF Wyton back in the late seventies. You would be impressed at just how manouverable it was for a large and old bomber. Phil |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3118
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 08-29-2007 05:33 PM
Canberras were built by Shorts here in Belfast. Would that apply to the two NASA aircraft, or were there other manufacturing sites? |
star61
Member Posts: 294
From: Bristol UK
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 08-30-2007 07:57 AM
The Canberra was built by Martin in the states. The cockpit was centerline (tandem), as in other USAF fighter\bombers. I think they used pw engines instead of RR Avons (not 100% sure on that bit?).Phil |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 08-30-2007 02:39 PM
B-57s for use in the states were built by Martin aircraft (as stated already) as they were license built. Martin added quite a few refinements to the design, with the big one being the replacement of the original cockpit section with a tandom cockpit with ejection seats for the pilot and navigator.The WB-57Fs are the largest winged of the Canberra fleet and were originally used by the USAF to fly heavy recon assets that the early U-2s could not. When the U-2Rs came online, that pretty much gave the air force a dedicated slow speed high altitude recon platform capable of carrying much of the heavy equipment WB-57s could (and the size and weight slimmed down on those boxes with redesign), so NASA got them for their own Earth Resources uses. The mineral survey makes sense to me and the stripping off of the NASA logos was probably done to keep the plane from becoming a target on the ground. Afghanistan is pretty much an allied country now with the military forces on deployment there using their own recon assets (U-2Rs and RC-135s). So there is no need for a NASA aircraft to carry ELINT or recon equipment. The WB-57s are also VERY different from British Canberras in a few subtle (and not so subtle) ways. It is a very different animal. Some of the imagery being collected might have intelligence uses I suppose, but who can say for sure.
Edited by Jay Chladek |
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