Missions supported by the Advanced Range
Instrumentation Aircraft EC-135E No. 374 included worldwide
telemetry gathering, international treaty verification,
spacecraft launches, and cruise missile and ballistic missile
defense testing. (Photo by Ray Johnson)
Last EC-135E ARIA retired to Air
Force Museum
by Ray Johnson
Air Force
Flight Test Center Public Affairs
11/13/00 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE
BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- The sole remaining EC-135E Advanced
Range Instrumentation Aircraft flew her last flight Nov. 2. An
aircrew from the Air Force Flight Test Center here delivered
ARIA No. 374 -- nicknamed "Bird of Prey" -- to the Air Force
Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, after a
four-hour flight from Edwards AFB.
Also on board were a handful of
airmen who once operated and maintained the small, unique
program of airborne telemetry platforms that is being retired
due to costs of the program and improved satellite
technology.
Making the final flight were Lt.
Gen. Robert Raggio, commander of the Aeronautical Systems
Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, and Maj. Gen. Dick Reynolds,
Air Force Flight Test Center commander.
During the late1980s, both men
commanded Wright-Patterson ARIA units that traveled worldwide
to gather data during spacecraft launches and missile tests.
In fact, Raggio and Reynolds flew No. 374, which, like all
ARIA birds, is easily recognizable by its bulbous nose which
houses a seven-foot dish antenna.
Raggio said participating in 374's
homecoming was a bittersweet experience.
"Of course, we are all sad that the
aircraft will not be used anymore," Raggio said. "However, the
close-knit ARIA community is very pleased that (No. 374) rests
at the museum for all for us to visit and reminisce of
missions past."
Reynolds called the aircraft's
retirement the end of a long history of important
developmental and operational test efforts that were vital to
the United States and its allies.
"The ARIA belongs in the Air Force
Museum," Reynolds said, "because of the crucial role it played
in advancing aerospace technology."
Originally named Apollo Range
Instrumentation Aircraft, the ARIA program was developed by
NASA and the Department of Defense in the 1960s to track lunar
missions, along with unmanned orbital and ballistic re-entry
programs.
The first of eight, then EC-135N,
aircraft became operational in 1968 as the program stood up at
Patrick AFB, Fla.
Seven years later, ARIA,
redesignated as Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft,
transferred to the 4950th Test Wing at Wright-Patterson
AFB.
Reynolds commanded the 4952nd Test
Squadron from 1987 to 1989, and during that time aircrews made
ARIA deployments to the far corners of the globe.
It was during a trip to Barbados
that Reynolds remembers his favorite mission. Supporting a
Trident submarine test, the general recalls flying out over
the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a moonless night when 10
missile re-entry vehicles rained in ahead of his aircraft. "It
was a spectacular light show -- picture perfect," he
said.
In 1994 the ARIA program, which now
included EC-18B aircraft and more than 200 airmen, relocated
to Edwards AFB. Gradually, taskings dwindled and planes were
declared excess and transferred to other programs such as
J-STARS. Today, only about 75 people directly and indirectly
support the existing mission.
With No. 374 now sitting at
Wright-Patterson AFB, only two active EC-18Bs, which are being
used primarily by the Navy for pilot training, are left to
represent ARIA's 30-year history.
However, that will change next May
when No. 374 will be officially displayed at the Air Force
Museum during a ceremony that also will honor 21 ARIA
crewmembers killed in an 1981 accident. Expected to be present
are hundreds of the plane's crewmembers who flew many of the
approximately 300 missions the Bird of Prey made to support
launches for high-profile programs as such the space shuttle,
deep space probes and Mars Path Finder.
- Air Force Museum
- Air Force Flight Test Center
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