T-29!

[nyniaan]

Re: T-29!

It is exactly a C-131
NC131CR, built 1955, out of Midlothian Texas - currently operated by: http://www.airborneimaging.net/
...but it ISN'T on their inventory.
It's got an old Lockheed Skunkworks logo on the tail, too.
sorry for the crap-quality of the pic - from a vid-cam in still mode.

~I had some more info on this plane but can't get my search engine to cough it up anymore. Very strange.

[nyniaan]

Re: T-29!

Should mention that it takes off about 12:30 hours every day. there it goes now...

[nyniaan]

Re: T-29!

And one more - FAA records: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...umbertxt=131CR

amend my previous post "N131CR" instead of "NC131CR"
~my fingers burped~

There is a very nice side shot here:

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/247792.html

and here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10659106@N00/4429884962/in/photostream/

~neither photo shows the nifty pod it has flying out of McLellan.

And from another site:
Ex-USAF serial number 53-7819. Now used for aerial survey work. The nose radome was previously found on N240HH, the Convair 240 operated by Texas Instruments.

There are no company logos on the trucks or attending vehicles where it is hangared. When the a/c is on the ground there is a sandwich-board outside in the parking places "Authorized personnel only beyond this point" to discourage visitors (it worked for me)

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: T-29!

Welcome to the hangar nyniaan

Your first posts went into the SPAM filter queue, I just got to them and you're now a full fledged post real time member...

Again, welcome to the hangar!

[RAD2LTR]

Re: T-29!

In that 3rd pic (the one on flicker) its got the Lockeed Skunkworks logo on the tail, I wonder whats up with that? Isn't that ususally reserved for Lockheed only test aircraft?

Will

[nyniaan]

Re: C-131B over Sacramento

It's back!
Using flight aware I find that we are not allowed to see where it is going.

They did several loop-circuits over what appears to be Darpa labs on the east coast in August of 2011... I can't pull up that page since I looked at it a few days ago!
http://www.warbirdinformationexchang...p?f=16&t=42253

Someone said they are being contracted by Raytheon but I can't confirm this.
Someone else thinks, based on that, that the lump underneath is ground-penetrating radar. I tend to agree - it does not look like any camera platform I've seen - and it flies right over my house twice a day - AND it has been flying twilight and night missions according to yet another observer in Rocklin.

A student of mine has a thought RE where it has been flying and Raytheon and GPR - and that is testing detection of radioactives.

Here it is with an interesting tag from 2007:
http://www.warbirdinformationexchang...p?f=16&t=42253

Any news?

[Race 29]

Re: T-29!

Yes! It is back! It flew right over the place where my band practices last Sunday. (Only mention the band because we heard it over our loud racket)!! I've heard it flying over my house twice this week including today, but I haven't been able to get any new pics. I don't know about the night flights. as I've not heard it, and I live right in McClellan's flight path (MAN, I wish that base was still active)!! It certainly doesn't seem to be flying as much as it was the last time it was here in Sacramento.

Race 29

[kensantafe]

Re: T-29!

Looks like turboprops on it to me
Ken

[64chrysler300]

Re: T-29!

If that's the same bird I've been hearing a few weeks ago, it was at China Lake off and on. Definatly NOT turbo props....Big healthy round engines...3350's?

as it was at night and I was inside a hanger when it went flying/returned. I only got a distant look at it from across the flight line at the end of my shift.

[440_Magnum]

Re: T-29!

If that's the same bird I've been hearing a few weeks ago, it was at China Lake off and on. Definatly NOT turbo props....Big healthy round engines...3350's?

Convair CV-x40 series airliners are powered by R-2800s. I stupidly missed a chance to hitch a jumpseat ride in one about 10 years ago. We were working a project out in the Caribbean, and the Beech 1900 taking us out there from FLL was one seat short and they asked me if I wanted to hitch a ride in "the cargo plane" (no further elaboration) that would be a half hour behind. I said I'd rather not, and then another guy didn't show up anyway so I took the 1900. As we were unloading, "the cargo plane" (a Convair 340) circled overhead and landed... and I thought "oh **** me!" Sure enough, the guy who was late jumped out of the door, grinning like a possum, proclaiming it the coolest ride a non-airport-rat would ever get a chance at. 10 years. 10 years I've been kicking myself...


When I was a kid, Texas International Airlines (formerly Trans-Texas Airlines, aka "TreeTopAirlines," one of the ancestors of Continental/United) flew a fleet of CV-580s. The 580 was a 440 or 340 re-engined with turboprops- Allison 501's IIRC. There were also many Convairliners re-engined with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops by Convair (the 600 and 680?), but ultimately I think the 501 was the most popular re-engine.

[V1670]

Re: T-29!

LOVE 'em. When I was a kid,240/340's would run from Des Moines to Chicago and Minneapolis. I can still hear that sweet sound of 2800's on a warm summer night as they headed out. Beautiful airplane....but then again,ain't they all?